Henry Simpson's Barn

Henry Simpson's Barn is a large 18th-century threshing barn, built in 1737. It is a single-phase building of four bays with a side aisle on the north-east side. The barn's main part was formally subdivided internally, featuring a cow house (shippon) at the south-east end with two entrances in the gable, and haylofts above it and at the north-west end, the latter accessed by a pitching hole in the gable.

The barn is constructed of dressed, coursed limestone to the front, with coursed rubble to the rear and sides. Gritstone quoins are at all corners, and ashlar dressings are used around all doorways. The roof is covered with stone slate, mostly surviving to the front but stripped at the rear.

The front (south-west) elevation has a cart entrance offset to the right of centre, with a plain chamfered jamb and a segmental arch of voussoirs. An inscribed plaque reads 'Mr H S 1737'. Simple ventilation holes are present, mainly in a single course above the entrance. The south-east gable has two doorways at the corners, both with chamfered jambs, monolithic lintels, and incised ogee hoods. A round-headed, chamfered ashlar ventilation slit sits between them. Both front and back gables feature finely carved kneelers with a cyma recta and cyma reversa moulding.

The rear elevation shows the aisle as a two-bay outshut to the right and one bay to the left, with a single bay, roofed porch in between relating to the recessed cart entrance. Doorways are present at the ends of the elevation and within the returns. The north-west gable has cyma recta, cyma reversa kneelers and a square pitching window in the upper gable with a chamfered ashlar surround.

The roof structure is unusual for the area and date, being traditionally pegged and jointed, and with carpenters' assembly marks present. The main range has three roof trusses with wind-braced king posts rising from high collars; these support the ridge plate and three sets of trenched and staggered purlins. Raking struts rise from the tie beams to support the principal rafters just below the middle purlins. Aisle plates abut the feet of the tie beams and are supported, like the purlins for the aisles, by masonry walls. Two timbers within the aisle roof are re-used cruck blades.