Barn adjoining road and approximately 50 metres north of Piccotts Farmhouse (EHER 27602)

Late 14th to early 15th century timber-framed barn.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import: A large late 14th century aisled barn. <1> Barn adjoining road and approximately 50m north of Piccott's Farmhouse. Barn of the late 14th century, and early 15th century. Grade II*. <2> 1998. Building survey. Piccotts is a timber framed aisled barn with a central nave and aisles to each side. This type of construction was used to build a wide building, in this case 38ft wide without the need to find 38ft lengths of timber. English Oak is rarely found above 25ft long. The nave at Piccotts is 22ft wide with 8ft aisles. Each bay is 16ft 6inches or 5 and a half yards which equals the traditional rod pole or perch measurement. Each nave post is 11inches square. The barn has 7 bays with two threshing floors or midstreys. It has a crownpost roof with downward braces to the tiebeams. The arcade posts have jowled heads and are supported by shores running down to the aisle ties. The heads of the aisle ties are swollen into a jowl and secured by four pegs. The outer ends of the aisle ties connect with the wall plates using reverse assembly. The outer walls have external curving tension bracing. The original wattle and daub infill has mostly been replaced by weatherboard although some survives on the south front. The scarf joints in the arcade plates are edge halved and bridled with four vertical pegs, a joint dating 1370-1600. This was gradually replaced by the face halved and bladed scarf, an example of which survives in the rebuilt north-east corner. Unusual features include evidence of a solid wall partition to the west of the eastern threshing floor dividing it into a 5 bay unit with a central threshing floor and a two bay unit with a threshing floor and storage bay to the east. This division may be for keeping different crops apart, as a result of it being run by two business or for tithe purposes. Evidence of narrow ventilation apertures remain in the flank walls and a pair of diamond mullioned windows built into the gable under the half hip collar. Neither of the two threshing floors, the western brick and eastern timber board are original, probably dating to no earlier than the 19th century . Bradwell Hall and Piccotts were for many years in the same ownership. Sir John Hende acquired Bradwell hall, his principal residence, some time around 1383-1393 and Piccotts about the same time. Hende was a rich man, Alderman of London, sheriff in 1381 and lord mayor in1391 and 1404. Sir John was clearly in a position to improve his estates through investment, and therefore is the likely candidate for the builder of the barn in the late 14th to early 15th century a date (1385-1405) would be consistent with the original carpentry features present. <3> 2006. Watching brief and building survey. Piccotts Farm retains a large Grade II* listed late medieval barn and Grade II post-medieval byre alongside 19th century cart and shelter sheds. The current survey followed a desk-based assessment and an addendum report produced after further observations during the recent survey (Padfield 2006). The barn is aisled with a crown post roof and dated to about 1440. Some repairs were made in the post-medieval period and porches and threshing floors, one of brick and the other of wood, probably inserted in the 19th century. Otherwise the barn has not been structurally altered. The byre is dated between 1550 and 1600 and may have been built initially as an oxhouse, which is rarity. At the time of the survey, the byre and sheds were being converted for residential usage. The barn was the centrepiece to the Piccotts estate that in the 15th century held approximately 300 acres. An impressive sight, with its sturdy oak frame and daub panels, low catslide roofs over the aisles and diamond mullioned windows to each of the bays and gable ends. In the post-medieval period, the timbers were plastered over. At another stage, possibly during the 19th-century improvement phase, plaster was exchanged for weatherboarding. The byre evolved in a similar manner. The built group represents developments in farming from the medieval to 19th-century periods. The barn was built to accommodate the harvest from the estate and its survival attests to the scale of the holding. Although there are several famous examples in Essex, barns dating to the medieval period are rare in the country as a whole. Archaeological monitoring was undertaken on underpinning and service trenches. No important archaeological remains were found, apart from an unprovenanced 19th century brick wall footing. <4> A date bracket of 1385-1405 was suggested in 1998, under the influence of Cecil Hewett’s stylistic dating of similar barns to the mid to late 14th century. As noted, Piccotts barn most closely resembles that at Priors Hall, Widdington, which has now been tree-ring dated to 1417-1442. Pam Walker has studied the documentary records for Priors Hall and suggests 1440-42 as the most likely construction date. The date range should therefore be extended from 1385 (still consistent with all the carpentry features and ownership) to 1450, with a preference for the latter half of the range. <5> See also: <6>