Barwickstead barn and attached ancillary buildings

Barwickstead barn and attached ancillary buildings

A barn dating from 1858, extended by the addition of a west range by 1898. The main barn is constructed in random red sandstone with dressed red sandstone dressings and a Lakeland stone slate roof. The later extension incorporates blockwork and corrugated metal.

The detached barn is oriented roughly east to west with a pair of projecting wings to either side of the rear entrance and an additional small range to the right side. It conforms to a bank barn with two floors plus an attic. The barn features dressed sandstone lintels, jambs and quoins beneath a pitched roof of graduated local slate topped with an ornate central cupola.

The east elevation displays the scar of a former narrow projecting range that has been demolished. A central entrance is flanked to its left by a double entrance; both have boarded doors and strap hinges, and the double opening incorporates a six-pane window. A second single entrance with a four-pane overlight is situated in the north corner. The first floor has a single centrally placed pitching door, and the attic floor is pierced by a series of six ventilation slits.

The right return has an entrance with a boarded door and a four-pane overlight, with a window to the left featuring a modified multi-pane fixed casement. A second entrance also has a window to its left with a six-over-six sliding sash window. There are three stepped ventilation slits to the apex and a trefoil finial. The left return has a trefoil finial to the apex, and at attic level there is a pair of small windows with resting ledges. The rear elevation has a wide central opening beneath a pentice roof, and to either side is an attached three-storey projecting outshut with pitched roofs, stone coping, finials and water tables. Both turrets have an original central eight-over-eight sliding sash window and stone feeding hatches at the base with lift-up boarded covers. Their respective north and south gables each have a small window to the apex and an owl hole with resting ledge; the right turret has a crenellated chimney pot.

The ground floor of the barn contains a byre and a stable. The byre has a central feed passage with a stone flagged floor set between raised stone kerbs and opposing entrances, with whitewashed walls and exposed ceiling beams and rafters. All boarded doors are original. The stable has a drainage system with gullies covered by slotted iron plates, and exposed ceiling beams and rafters. Three original boarded timber stalls with ornate cast-iron columns are retained; each stall has a rectangular feeding hatch through its west wall with simple boarded doors and strap hinges, and an original iron manger. A cast iron trough or sink is positioned at the end of the row of stalls. Each of the small rear turret projections contains a simple room that retains stone stall divisions and the lower parts of the external feeding hatches. The wash house attached to the most southerly turret projection retains an early 20th-century wash copper within a brick structure with a copper lid. The first floor of the barn, formerly the granary, is a large open space with upper ventilation slits and a king post roof structure; part of which at the south end has an inserted timber pigeon loft.

Built against the right rear turret and extending westwards is a pair of attached later 19th-century additions. The first is rectangular beneath a pitched roof of slate with a central ventilator. Its gabled south elevation has scattered fenestration, and its north wall is a modern blockwork and corrugated metal replacement. The building is thought to have housed a horse gang and retains two of its original three ceiling beams. Attached to the rear is a roofless building standing to eaves height with an asymmetric north gable containing a single entrance and retaining evidence of several roof lines, and it has a chimney stack to the south gable. The building is thought to have housed a stable, boiler house to heat a former glasshouse, and a store. The stable is thought to retain the remains of stalls and has a series of double openings through its east wall giving access to the horse gang.