Description

1696/0/10005

BRIGHTWELL BALDWIN
CADWELL LANE
Cadwell Farm Barns

16-DEC-05

II

BUILDING: Range of three barns

DATE: Probably mid C18-early C19

ARCHITECT: Not known. Vernacular buildings.

MATERIALS: Timber-framed on stone plinths, weather-boarded, and with red flat-tile roofs.

PLAN: Rectangular.

FAÇADE: The three timber-framed barns abut each other in-line. Barn 1, closest to the farmhouse, is the tallest, but shortest. Barn 2 is lower but longer. Barn 3 is lower still, and of the same length as Barn 2. All three employ a form of construction which employs cranked inner principals, characterised and discussed in Vernacular Architecture (Clark 2004). Cranked inner principals, that is curved, cruck-like braces rising within the main trusses of a roof between tiebeam and collar, are found mainly in agricultural buildings in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and South Oxfordshire. Dated examples span 1651-1882, with the majority being constructed in the mid to late C18.

Barn 1: Of three bays and two storeys. Possibly mid C18. The timber frame of the barn is of poor quality, waney, scantlings, roughly cleaved and many retaining bark on curved outer edges. Double doorway to north, gable end ground floor, with single doorway to first floor. The ground floor is not further subdivided. Rubble stone sill supporting wall plate with vertical studs and diagonal braces. First floor is tall, with the roof structure employing notably long cranked inner principals (Clark's Type C1, 'dropped tiebeam') to gain height. Twin purlins, and many original common rafters supplemented by new ones introduced when the building was felted and retiled in the later C20. Wooden grain bins run the full length of either side of the building, defining its first floor as a granary. Modern single-storey lean-tos attached to west and east sides not of architectural interest.

Barn 2: Abuts south end of Barn 1. Of three bays and two storeys. Possibly late C18 or early C19. Timber frame of sawn members, thus markedly different in character than Barn 1. Doorway in west wall into ground floor, not subdivided. Rubble stone sill. Inner walls clad with plyboard concealing studding. Loft-like first floor. End trusses with Clark's type A1b cranked inner principal construction (`clasped purlin and raking strut'); type C1 inner trusses (`dropped tiebeam') with braced tie-beams. Door with dormer roof mid-way down east side. Modern single-storey lean-to attached to west side not of architectural interest.

Barn 3: Abuts south end of barn 2, and of very similar character in terms of its framing which employs sawn timber. Probably broadly contemporary with it. Of three bays and one storey. Doorway in west wall. Trusses again of Clark's type A1b, and as in Barn 2 with with braced tie-beams. Walls and roof cladded concealing wall studding, although this partly visible to exterior through gaps in weather-boarding. South gable wall and part of west wall rebult in breeze block.

HISTORY: Cadwell Farm stands in open countryside south-east of the village of Chalgrove, and midway between it and Brightwell Baldwin. The farmhouse (listed grade II) is a substantial early/mid C18 structure of limestone rubble with ashlar quoins under a tiled roof. Late C19 Ordnance Survey maps show that the farmhouse then stood at the north-east corner of a square courtyard arrangement of buildings (now largely cleared), with the barn range on-line to its south, forming the east range of the complex. The range faced a conventional threshing barn, recorded on at least one photograph (in private hands). The scale and date of the C18 farmhouse and barns suggests the possibility that the farm was established, or rebuilt, around the time of inclosure.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: Three in-line timber framed barns, all employing the regionally distinctive cranked inner principal form of construction albeit with interesting variations. Of probable C18 to early C19 date they survive in good condition alongside their contemporary farmhouse.

SOURCES
D. Clark, `Cranked Inner Principals', Vernacular Architecture 35 (2004), 32-9

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670816

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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