Early 18th century timber framed barn, Brickhouse Farm (EHER 40660)

An early 18th century timber framed four-bay barn with midstrey. The barn is built mainly in oak with elm weatherboarding, and is covered with tile. It has extensive evidence of carpenter's marks and a rare stone threshing floor in the midstrey.

March 2006. Heritage assessment. The barn is possibly early 18th century and consists of three bays with a further rebuilt bay to the West and modern bay to the East. It was built mainly in oak, with some elm and softwood infill, and elm weatherboarding. The tiles were torched into place without the use of pegs or nails. The roof to the modern bay is roofed in corrugated asbestos sheets. It has a rare stone threshing floor in the midstrey. To either side of the porch, West and East, are lean-tos with that to the East being enclosed and divided into two whilst that to the West is open fronted and of a later date. Internally, there is extensive evidence of carpenter's marks on the timber frame. The barn abuts an 18th century brick building to the West (EHER 81657) and there are the remains of a pole barn with a corrugated iron roof to the East elevation. Despite its age, there still remain features of interest in the barn. This shows that money was available in the early 18th century for farming and this farm appears to have been an arable farm at that time. It has also seen many changes some showing up the downturn in farming fortunes as well as the better times. Arable farming in the area seems to have taken off in the late 17th century as the marsh areas were drained. This sequence of 18th century building development also shows up to the North of the Crouch on the Dengie peninsular where one would assume similar farming regimes on the flat mainly marshy lands around the river estuaries of Essex. <1>