Barn at Birds Farm (EHER 37683)

A building recording was undertaken in 2020 and documented the late 18th century barn.

2020. Building survey. The Barn at Bird’s Farm contains the frame of a late 18th century three bay barn made from the frames of at least three other buildings. The most notable feature is the variety of jowled posts forming the trusses. The roof was originally thatched and contains many pole rafters as well as reused pairs of rafters of various sections. On the south-west end is a store made of the same materials and design which would have also been thatched. The partition wall contains some original panels of wattle and daub and the whole frame is darted for wattle and daub panels. The barn was rebuilt in the early 19th century with a weather-boarded skin and nailed on internal braces. The barn represents a typical barn of the late 18th century, erected to capitalise on increased grain yields brought about by progressive farming methods which, in most of Essex, did not catch on until the Napoleonic War of 1803-1815. <1>