Browfoot Barn To Rear Of Darlfield House

This is a bank barn, likely built in the early to mid-18th century and slightly altered since. It’s constructed of uncoursed, mixed random rubble with quoins, and has a graduated slate roof. The barn follows an L-shape, comprising three bays and a two-bay rear wing attached to the third bay. There is a shippon (animal shelter) and a loose box located underneath the barn.

The south-facing front of the barn rises with the natural slope of the land. A porch, likely added or rebuilt in the 19th century, features short side walls and a monopitched roof. It projects over a segmental-arched wagon doorway constructed of rubble voussoirs, above a chamfered timber lintel. The lintel has sockets for former harr-hung doors, which are now missing. The east side has three doorways leading to the undercroft shippon. The first has a flat arched head, the second has been rebuilt with a concrete lintel, and both currently have 19th-century board doors. The third doorway is segmental-headed with rubble voussoirs, with an original harr-hung batten-and-board door that opens outwards. A loose box adjoins, with a stable door flanked by small, segment-headed windows with rubble voussoirs. The right-hand window has two panes of glazing over a wooden ventilator, while the left-hand window is now without glazing. A continuous slate drip-band runs above all the openings, broken above the rebuilt shippon doorway. The wall above also shows some projecting coursing at three levels, a characteristic feature of the area. A former farmhouse adjoins the left end of the barn.

Inside, the shippon contains original axial stalls for sixteen cattle, arranged in two rows of four pairs flanking a feeding passage. The stalls have roughly hewn but chamfered timber posts and beams, featuring run-out stops. The feeding passage has a cobbled floor and walls formed of massive slate slabs. The loose box also has a cobbled floor. The barn itself has original pegged king-post and collar-rafter roof trusses; one truss in the wing bears a carpenter’s mark, "111". This is a good example of a bank barn, relatively early and largely unaltered.