Barn with Attached Wall to the East of the Stable Block at Clevedon Court, Clevedon, North Somerset

Summary

An C18 barn incorporating some medieval fabric with C19 alterations and repaired in late-C20, and attached wall, to the east of Clevedon Court.

Description

MATERIALS: rubble walls and large dressed stone details under a modern pantile roof.

PLAN: the one-and-a-half-storey building sits on a slope and has a north to south axis. It has a rectangular plan with an open lean-to attached to the southern end of the west elevation and a cross wing on the east. An attached tall rubble wall with buttresses runs east from south-east corner of the barn for circa 8 m east.

EXTERIOR: the west elevation contains a central pair of doorways which have a wide segmental-arched head and window-light above. A timber casement window sits to the north and on either side of the entrance are narrow arrow-slit openings with large stone surrounds. On the south end of this elevation is an open shelter with large stone piers, some of which have been replaced in the C20, and a pitched tile roof with C20 timbers. The north gable end contains two central windows; the stone work to the first-floor opening indicates it has previously been a door. This gable end also has two arrow slits. The east elevation has two arrow slits flanking a segmental-arched window at the north end. A small wing projects from this elevation with external stone steps leading to a first-floor late-C20 timber door on the north elevation. The wing has an exposed stack with external fireplace suggesting that the area to the east was originally roofed. Beside the stack on the east end is a late-C20 plank door with a two-centered pointed arch made up of stone voussoirs and a keystone, and a late-C20 timber casement window above. The south gable end of the main barn is obscured by the adjacent building. It has a cusped trefoil opening under the eaves in the top of the gable wall.

INTERIOR: the barn is accessed via the two entrance doors on the west elevation. The left door leads to a central passage corridor. To the left is a plank and batten door which leads though to a ground-floor room. The room is currently used for storage and has a large timber beam running the width of the room. The timber appears to have been reused as it is chamfered with stops at one end of the wall and another pair two thirds of the way along the room. Most of the timbers in the room, including the ceiling joists and the shutters are C20/C21 replacements. This room and the connecting corridor have flagstone floors. The right entrance leads through to the southern end of the building which is an open space. Now used as a table tennis room, the walls are painted stone with some small fragments of plaster surviving. Six blocked windows with splayed openings are visible at first-floor level around the room and above in the south gable is a similar but smaller attic window. On three sides of the room is a series of square holes at first-floor height with another row below. Those at first-floor height may represent the location of the supports for a horizontal division; the purpose of the lower row is unclear, however, it may have been to location of a cider press. The first-floor consists of a room at the north end with a replacement late-C20 timber panel partition and a timber balcony over the central passage which looks onto the southern end which is open to the ground floor. This floor is accessed via the external stone steps and entrance on the east elevation. The king-post truss roof is a late-C20 replacements.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: a circa 2m high stone rubble wall with buttresses runs off the south-east corner of the building for circa 8m east. The wall shows evidence of blocked windows and doorways and would appear to have originally been the wall to a roofed building and is now used as part of a boundary wall.

History

The barn is one of a group of ancillary buildings to the east of Clevedon Court. A circa 1730 painting of Clevedon Court (listed at Grade I) shows that the area where the current barn stands to the east of the court was empty at the time. The painting shows a barn structure to the west of the court with arrow slit windows. It is possible that the barn shown on this image was dismantled and parts of it were re-used to construct the current barn to the east in the C18. The east barn is shown on the Tithe Map (circa 1840) with a ‘T’ shape plan and in the late C19 a shelter structure was added to the south-west. The stone walls vary between 60cm and 46 cm thick, the thicker walls are comparable with other known C18 buildings at the court and the thinner walls are probably later C19 insertions. The evidence of a stack on the east elevation of the barn shows that part of the building would have been heated. The southern section of the building contains a larger double height space which in its recent history has been used as the location for indoor table tennis and may have been used previously for indoor tennis. In the late C20 the building was damaged by a fire and the subsequent repair included the replacement of the timber roof, the first-floor timber gallery and the most of the building’s other timber elements.

Reasons for Listing

The barn with attached wall to the east of the stable block at Clevedon Court, Clevedon is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural interest: it is an attractive agricultural building with some good decorative detailing including the re-used medieval arrow slits, door frames and dressed stone;
* Historic interest: it is a pre-1840s building which, despite later alterations and repairs, retains a significant proportion of early fabric;
* Group value: it forms a strong visual and historic group with other listed ancillary buildings to the east of Clevedon Court, an important Grade II* listed building.

External Links

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