West Minley Farm Barn, Blackwater and Hawley, Hampshire

Summary

Barn, with a late C17 or early C18 frame. Wall cladding and roof covering replaced in the C19 and C20.

Description

Barn, with a late C17 or early C18 frame and roof structure, with the wall cladding and roof covering replaced in the C19 and C20.

MATERIALS: a timber-framed barn on an English bond brick plinth, clad in C20 weatherboarding, with a roof covered in Welsh slates.

PLAN: a six-bay barn with half-hipped roofs, it has opposing cart entrances in the fourth bay from the south, and internal partitions creating loose-boxes in the northern two bays.

EXTERIOR: the south-west and north-east sides have central full-height cart entrances with C19 ledged and plank double doors. The northern half of the north-east side additionally has two smaller entrances, added when the north part of the barn was later partitioned off, probably for animal husbandry or stables. The south-east end has a pedestrian entrance and a loading door above, both with plank doors with iron strap hinges. The north-west end has no entrances.

INTERIOR: the interior has a substantial, pegged, oak frame that may have been reconstructed, given the even number of bays, using components from two structures, or from a larger building. The southern three bays are slightly narrower, and the southern gable wall is generally of thinner scantling. The roof trusses have consistent series of carpenters' marks, in Roman numerals, numbered generally from west to east on the northern face. Additionally, the frame and roof components are marked alphabetically, per bay, in stencilled lettering from A to F running south to north on the western side, G on the northern gable wall, and so on to the southern gable wall, labelled O. There are additional stencilled numbers on the frame and studs of the northern gable wall, from 2 to 5, from west to east. The type of lettering appears to be mid-C19 and may indicate numbering used to assist with dismantling and reassembling the building, had it been moved.

Most posts have jowled heads but these are not always arranged in the original sequence in each bay; for example the northern post framing the western entrance is correctly assembled while its counterpart on the eastern elevation is up-ended, with the jowl at ground level, and some posts have been made up with added material; this is not uncommon where repairs have been needed. In general there is a midrail and diagonal tension bracing, but a few posts have void mortices for missing midrails and braces and some of the wall studs are also reused. The sole plates rest on a plinth of near standard sized, probably mid-C19 red bricks. Similar bricks are used in the threshing floor, which is laid in brick, in places overlain with a timber floor.

The roof structure is also pegged and consistently of substantial queen posts with additional side struts and has two tiers of purlins, the upper tier clasped, with diagonal wind braces. The lower tier is generally of butt purlin construction, with some staggered purlins in the northern two bays. The rafters are also robust in scantling, most are pegged in and appear to be original, and there is no ridge piece. The slate battens are C19.

The northern two bays are lined to midrail height in horizontal tongue and groove boarding that covers the lower frame and plinth. A late C19 or early C20 wooden partition clad in horizontal boards divides the two northern bays from the threshing floor, and these are further subdivided into two looseboxes, one of which has an iron hay rack.

History

The land on which West Minley Farm is situated was part of the Tylney family estates by the late C17 and became part of the Currie family estate from 1846. Raikes Currie, the original purchaser, was a partner in Glyn Mills' Bank and a former MP for Northampton. He commissioned the architect Henry Clutton to design a new house, Minley Manor, which was built between 1858 and 1860. On his death the estate was passed to his son Bertram Wodehouse Currie (1827-1896), who in 1885 employed the architect George Devey (1820-1886) to make extensive alterations to the house and grounds. Following the death of Raikes' grandson Laurence Currie in 1934, Bertram Francis Currie sold the complete estate of about 2500 acres to the War Department. The Ministry of Defence sold West Minley Farm in 2005.

On the one inch Ordnance Survey map of 1813 there do not appear to be any buildings on the site, and the 1846 Tithe map is not clear, but a building in this position is shown as the south-west part of a U-shaped farm group on the First Edition 25 inch Hampshire Ordnance Survey Map of 1872 with a detached farmhouse situated to the north. The footprint is unchanged on subsequent editions.

Reasons for Listing

The barn at West Minley Farm is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a substantial late C17 or early C18 timber frame and roof structure, with unusual evidence of how it was carefully dismantled and reassembled in the mid-C19.

Historic interest:

* reconstructed as part of a new farmstead on former heathland within the Minley Estate which in 1846 was acquired and subsequently developed by the Currie family.

External Links

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