Granary to west of Parsonage Farmhouse, north of barn (EHER 36599)

Previously considered to be 15th century, a 2008 building survey determined that the granary is 17th century and is an addition to the 15th century barn.

2008. Building survey. Despite the depredations of modern farming methods, the granary still exhibits a remarkable systematic construction, using good quality, standard and carefully selected cuts of oak, which take the studs up from the ground, continuing into the roof rafters with mathematical precision, constructed with great skill and finished with flourishes which suggest that the granary was expensive, of particular importance and highly valued. The building is datable to the 17th century on the basis of several characteristics. The primary-braced studwork lies in the 17th or 18th century range, but the use of cranked braces suggests an early date within this scope. The principals are also no longer jowled in the early manner, but merely swell in a gentle way, and the use of the lamb's tongue chamfer stops may also suggest that this building was constructed around the middle of the 17th century. The joggled butt-purlin roof is typically 17th century, but can not be more accurately dated, as the tradition continued into the 18th. There is no evidence of any earlier timber, as suggested in the listing, which might derive from the stained and darkened nature of the ground floor ceiling joists, which are contemporary, but which have suffered accelerated decay. The granary in its original form would have been a fairly well appointed building and still contains elements which we can identify as a typical granary. These buildings had plastered walls, ceilings and also floors; a necessity for dry and ratproof storage of precious grain, and indeed this rare survival of a plastered floor can still be seen from below on the attic level. The modern windows probably replace louvres. At ground floor level the western bay was originally open to the front, where short braces survive, and a loading hatch from the upper floor would have discharged grain straight into a cart. The stair vestibule probably also accommodated a steep stair for access and hauling sacks, but there is now little trace of this. More recent reuse has been unkind to what would otherwise have been an exceptionally well preserved building, but the granary remains a very interesting and typical example of its period and type. <1>