Barn at Renters Farm, 40m SE of The Old Farmhouse (EHER 39219)

A 16th century timber framed barn, with 14th century origins.

February 1987. Grade II listed. An early 14th century but mainly 16th century timber framed and weatherboarded barn with a corrugated iron roof. It has six bays aligned NNE-SSW, with two large midstreys to WNW and two smaller midstreys to ESE. There are also lean-to extensions on both long sides. It was originally aisled, but rebuilt in the 16th century without aisles. <1> <2> April 2016. Heritage assessment. A historic building survey was undertaken in 2016 in advance of conversion. The barn has six bays with two midstreys and full height porches on both sides. It is constructed from reused oak and elm. While the barn retains parts of the frames of a 14th century aisled barn and a 16th century barn there is no direct evidence to indicate they were on the farm before the erection of the current structure. The frames are partial and highly altered and all have been raised on a brick plinth of brickwork from around 1800. The western side of the barn is made of a collection of older frames of different styles and in bays 4 and 6 extra studwork has been skew nailed in to provide enough anchor points for the weather-boarding. The end walls and the eastern side are made of primary braced, nailed interrupted studwork in the early 19th century style. Similarly the western porches are reused frames while the eastern are new build using reused timbers. All the remaining doors and leap boards are also early 19th century, repaired in several stages up to the 20th century. The clasped side purlin roof structure runs across the whole structure without a break and it is evident the trussless roof was assembled as one structure. During the survey the former owner and farmer was able to point out when the current buildings were erected by him and his father. Most traces of all the earlier outshots and farm buildings have been effaced by demolition in the 1950s to 1960s. The date brick of 'JM 1953' indicates the first wave of new blockwork buildings which were all built to the same pattern and served as piggeries. The Atcost barn was erected in 1960. <3>