19th century barn at Church Farm, Tendring (EHER 80466)

The barn is a 19th century, traditional threshing barn of standard form with evidence of a brick or boarded threshing floor in its central bay. Its roof has been replaced and several lean to sheds forming a shelter-shed and a cart lodge were constructed in the late 19th or early 20th century.

Historic building report, 2021 The barn lies approximately 15 m south-east of the former farmhouse at Church Farm which is currently roughcast but appears from the aerial photograph of circa 1970 to be a gault-brick and slate structure of the early-19th century. It may well be contemporary with the barn, with both replacing earlier counterparts on the same sites. The barn was constructed in several phases. The barn is a traditional threshing barn of standard form with evidence of a brick or boarded threshing floor in its central bay. The brick edging of this floor survives but the floor itself has been removed. It was entered by full-height doors in both its eastern elevation and its western porch, but the western roof-plate of the central bay has been cut out to increase headroom, and if the porch is a later addition this wall may have contained a small rear door of the kind found in most 18th century and older barns. The majority of the barn’s wall framing remains intact, along with all four internal tie-beams and their original knee-braces, however the roof has been replaced. The eastern studs of both northern bays have been replaced in 20th century softwood, as have the western studs of the southern bays and most of those in the southern side elevation of the porch. Both sets of doors have also been either replaced or removed, and the western entrance has been reduced in height as shown in illustrations 3 and 16. Some possibly original external pine weatherboarding survives to the northern gable and the western wall of the northern bays where it was protected by the recently demolished additional sheds but most was renewed in the 20th century. Traces of red paint are visible above the shelter-shed but there is no evidence of this elsewhere and it appears to date only from the 20th century. A single-storied weatherboarded and pantiled shed which was constructed in the late 19th to early 20th century and used as a shelter shed projects at a right-angle to the west of the barn’s southern bays and extends to 14 m long by 4.4 m wide. A second weatherboarded lean-to shed was constructed in the early 20th century and was used as a cart lodge. It projects by 5 m from the southern gable of the barn and was first depicted on the Ordnance Survey of 1921 with three open sides. Despite the loss of its roof and substantial sections of its wall fabric the threshing barn at Church Farm remains of considerable historic interest. As a ‘Napoleonic’ barn it illustrates the dramatic increase in the region’s cereal production in the early-19th century and contains an early example of a vehicle thoroughfare. <1>