Barn Find

[Blow-in]

This is a grade 2 listed barn with parts dating from the 18th century in Lincolnshire, England.

Part of the barn is mud & stud constructed which is found only in Lincolnshire and parts of New England (USA) where Lincolnshire craftsmen worked (Captain John Smith was a local lad).

In side the barn was this old wooden cart body which had been transferred to a 'modern' chassis & running gear to allow it to be pulled by a tractor although the horse shafts were still with the cart (no sign of the original wheels).

The cart had clearly been repainted several times with the dates 1947 and 1959 still visible although the cart is much older than that.


The tennant farmer is still Farmer Brown although not the same one as painted here:

Here is a detail shot - I hope you find this interesting.


Richard

 

[streetshooter]

Richard, I found the photos interesting. I wonder, if the barn is so old, is there a reason it is not being restored?

 

[Blow-in]

Richard, I found the photos interesting. I wonder, if the barn is so old, is there a reason it is not being restored?

Don, thanks...18C is not old in Lincolnshire mate! It's a question of who would pay (sadly).

Richard

 

[Tom Caldwell]

Richard,

Obviously a barn and not a byre. When I was a wee laddie we lived at a place called "Bankhead Cottage" which abuts on to the church wall of Loudoun Kirk near Galston, itself one of the ancient monuments "1400's" as far as I remember. My mother used to say "Bankhead" was over 200 years old and the walls were "two foot thick". I don't remember a lot but the slate roof was probably added before there was much worry about original fidelity and more about practicality. It would be "over 260 years old by now - I believe it to be still in regular occupation.

My great-grandparents are supposed to have lived at a place called "Wee Inchgotrick" in the third part of the 1800's and the place is still occupied today - it has a build date of "1680" over the lintel.

Little around here can be found pre-1900 let alone proper heritage worth restoring. I once helps disassemble a local farm house that had been built over a first settler's original slab hut hand adzed from solid wood. We saved the slabs for the local museum. They might date to the 1870's.

The old barn images were certainly worth sharing and clearly point out the dilemma: "what do you do?" Let them fall apart and disappear, fix them or replace them more cheaply with modern materials? (not done), or otherwise who pays to restore them, does the country end up with hundreds of old restored buildings of little practical use?

The cart is a history book with successive restorations and "improvements" literally writ all over it.

Interesting images, thanks.

It might also be interesting to note that thousands of farm labourers displaced by the enclosure acts from the Anglian districts emigrated to Australia 1850-1860+ and especially to the North Coast of New South Wales which was being settled at the time to the point that a few distinctive inflexions in the "North Coast" Australian accent are supposed to come from that immigration. (And yes, Australia is developing "regional" accents). "moity" in Victoria, "filim" around here (now dying out), "maroan" for "maroon" (I cannot convince the locals otherwise), "New-cah-sil" for "Newcssl" (subtle, but I get pulled up on it all the time). And of course the "ur" part of the word does not exist and is always modified to "ir" - good old Aussies go for a sirf. And don't talk to me about "going on a tooah". Lake Cathie is "Lake Cat-eye". I might be corrected and would like to know but the locals call a local area "Cross-ma-glen", I am sure that this cannot be correct and should be "Cross-maglen".

Sorry, I got carried away ...

Tom

 

[Blow-in]

Richard,

Obviously a barn and not a byre. When I was a wee laddie we lived at a place called "Bankhead Cottage" which abuts on to the church wall of Loudoun Kirk near Galston, itself one of the ancient monuments "1400's" as far as I remember. My mother used to say "Bankhead" was over 200 years old and the walls were "two foot thick". I don't remember a lot but the slate roof was probably added before there was much worry about original fidelity and more about practicality. It would be "over 260 years old by now - I believe it to be still in regular occupation.

My great-grandparents are supposed to have lived at a place called "Wee Inchgotrick" in the third part of the 1800's and the place is still occupied today - it has a build date of "1680" over the lintel.

Little around here can be found pre-1900 let alone proper heritage worth restoring. I once helps disassemble a local farm house that had been built over a first settler's original slab hut hand adzed from solid wood. We saved the slabs for the local museum. They might date to the 1870's.

The old barn images were certainly worth sharing and clearly point out the dilemma: "what do you do?" Let them fall apart and disappear, fix them or replace them more cheaply with modern materials? (not done), or otherwise who pays to restore them, does the country end up with hundreds of old restored buildings of little practical use?

The cart is a history book with successive restorations and "improvements" literally writ all over it.

Interesting images, thanks.

It might also be interesting to note that thousands of farm labourers displaced by the enclosure acts from the Anglian districts emigrated to Australia 1850-1860+ and especially to the North Coast of New South Wales which was being settled at the time to the point that a few distinctive inflexions in the "North Coast" Australian accent are supposed to come from that immigration. (And yes, Australia is developing "regional" accents). "moity" in Victoria, "filim" around here (now dying out), "maroan" for "maroon" (I cannot convince the locals otherwise), "New-cah-sil" for "Newcssl" (subtle, but I get pulled up on it all the time). And of course the "ur" part of the word does not exist and is always modified to "ir" - good old Aussies go for a sirf. And don't talk to me about "going on a tooah". Lake Cathie is "Lake Cat-eye". I might be corrected and would like to know but the locals call a local area "Cross-ma-glen", I am sure that this cannot be correct and should be "Cross-maglen".

Sorry, I got carried away ...

Tom

Hello Tom,

At the risk of going further off topic, personally I don't have a problem with language evolution which I suspect has been going on ever since the cavemen developed regional grunts. I do have an issue with lazy users who can't spell or use the wrong word or have a random approach to using an apostrophe (in their 'first' language). Anyway, this is the listing for this barn:

http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk ... by-lincoln

Often being listed is the final straw for a building that is derelict as the restrictions on how it may be repaired and subsequently used generally make its restoration economically unviable (here I speak with some experience having owned a grade II listed ruin for a while). I fear that this barn will be a case in point. It's miles from any population centre of note and some distance from the farm yard (for reasons I have yet to discover) and of no practical use to its owner - restored or otherwise.

Richard

 

[quester]

Interesting story Richard.
I see that even in the three years that separate the time of your photo and the photo in the listing, the barn's appearance has deteriorated. Your elements are not forgiving...