Still remaining in the Midlands are many important and characteristic specimens of medieval barns. The counties of Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and, continuing further south, of Somersetshire and Wiltshire appear to have the largest number of examples; between them, so far as I am at present aware, upwards of sixty-eight buildings (inclusive of those which are more or less in ruins). WORCESTERSHIRE. Little Comberton.-At Little Comberton, near Pershore, is an example of the smaller type of barn-probably a rector's barn-of which there must still exist a very large number, maintained, as already said, because they are of more practical size for modern farming, and are not so costly in up-keep, for since the passing of the Commutation Acts (6 and 7 Will. IV., &c.) their tithe purposes have ceased to exist. This barn is built of rough coursed rubble work of stone from Bredon Hill. Externally it is 75' o" in length and 25' 0" in width. Its walls are 2' o" thick and rise about 14' 0" to the eaves; it is thatch-roofed and half hipped at both ends. Each of its side and gable walls are pierced with the usual deep splayed slit-lights or oillets. The date is hard to determine, but it is doubtful if earlier than the 15th century. Fladbury.-Another small barn is at Fladbury. It is an unimportant, plain, half-timbered erection, resting on a rubble base. The date is about the end of the 16th century or perhaps even later. It is 105' 0" long by 20' 0" wide.(1) Charlton. Not far distant from the above is the sometime barn, now church of Charlton. Architecturally it had doubtless some simplicity and grace as a barn, but restored as it is into a church it cannot claim success. Length 75' 0", width 25' 0". Besford.-Besford(2) Manor (now Besford Court) barn has peculiar interest-it is an example of the early timber constructions-and although now covered in with tarred weather boarding, here and there can be found some of its original plaster panels with their lath sprung into grooves in the framings. Nor is this its only feature, it has considerable other interest in the fact that it is a double barn, and of peculiar plan. It consists, indeed, of two barns, both with a cart porch, set together somewhat in the form of the letter L, each arm of which is almost the exact counterpart of the other. Externally either measures 70′ 0′′ in length and 28′ o" in width. The timber-framed walls rise off a rubble basement (1) No doubt the early religious house here-a small one originally belonging to Worcester but after to Stratford-had a barn the place of which this structure may have taken. (2) Belonged to Westminster at the time of the Domesday Survey, but previously to Pershore. 10" thick and 2' 0" high,to a total height of 14' 0" to the eaves, and about 32' 0" to the gable apex. The wall framings are in 13'0" bays and have 11"x11" and 11′′ ×9′′ oak posts, with 9′′ × 41⁄2" intermediates, 11" x 10" sills and heads, and 10" × 41⁄2" intermediates, all grooved for plastering. The roof trusses have 11" tie beams tapered from 18" to 11", 9" x 5" queen posts, 5′′ × 7′′ principal rafters and straining pieces, and other timbers of proportionate sizes; purlins 9" x 7", rafters 41⁄2" x 3"; it is covered in with stone shingles, and has a stone ridge and small finial crosses on each gable apex. There are no special features, except the crosses to indicate the date, and these seem to have been executed outside the usual traditions of mediæval masonry, for they are rough and uncouth; possibly it may date from one of the middle or later years of the 15th century, somewhere about that of the most interesting half-timbered church hard by, but it is difficult, if at all possible, to assign a closer date. It is built of rubble stonework; its wall are 2′ 4′′ thick and are divided into bays by two-stage buttresses, and it is roofed in with stone shingles, In plan it is 127' 8" long and 38′ 7′′ wide internally, and is divided by two rows of posts carrying the roof principals into three avenues or aisles; the sides are 8′ 6′′ wide and the centre about 21′ 3′′, and its floor area amounts to nearly 5,000 square feet. The side walls are 2' 4" thick and rise about 13' 0", and the gable ends. are 2′ 6′′ thick, 42′ 0′′ high, and are coped and crowned with foliated apex stones that once bore crosses. On the north-east side there are two cart porches 18′ o" wide and which project an equal distance, but have no buttresses. Over the easternmost of these, and approached by an external stone stair, is a solar or room for the monk or bailiff who had charge of the barn. This is a very rare and interesting feature. On one side of this room, and borne externally on a bold corbel, is a very delicate and graceful chimney shaft, carried up square to just above the eaves, there weathered back BREDON INTERIOR. and splayed off to form an octagonal flue some 8 feet in height, which is crowned with a pyramidal cap, pierced with little pointed and canopied slits on each face of the octagon for the egress of the smoke. In the internal angle of this porch, as it joins the main building on the north side, is a shaft or pit-how deep extending I do not know, but I think not lower than the ground level-and continued. up to the eaves with solid masonry without break or opening; at the top it finishes abruptly and a small lancet slit gives light. It can only be approached now by a ladder inside the barn. The room was lighted originally by small lancet slits, which, as also the internal portion of the chimney, are now blocked up and plastered over, and a modern window inserted in the gable end. The interior of the barn is very fine, it has nine bays of massive timber framings carried between the walls on oak posts 14′′ square, tapering to 10" with splayed base stones 21" square. The truss is of indescribable form, and resembles more a system of strutted beams than a roof truss proper. Its cross beams are 9" x 7", its longitudinal purlin-beams 10" x 7", strutted with heavy timbers. The purlins, wind braces, &c., are of large dimensions, and the common rafters 5" x 4", laid, as is usual, with the broader side downward. Opposite the porches are cart doors in the north-west wall, and each wall and gable is pierced with long oillets deeply splayed internally, and about 4" wide on face, with square stone heads and oak lintols on the inside. There are also numerous ventilation holes through the walls about 6" square. The immense key, having double wards on each side, was until lately in existence.(1) This barn is a very magnificent specimen; it forms a singularly complete example of the larger kind, and although some have given its date as 1450 A.D., it appears to be certainly not later than about the middle of the 14th century.(2) (1) Referred to in Archæol. Assoc. Jour., xxxviii. 82. |