Please note: the links in this section supported by the 'plus' icon indicate how we propose to link from keywords within the site to the glossary. Only the word barns works as a link in this text. The others are highlighted for illustrative purposes only, but all will be found in the glossary.
Buildings, or parts of buildings, specialised in either crop storage and processing (barns, hay barns, cider houses, oast houses and farm maltings, granaries) or the accommodation of animals (cow houses and shelter sheds, ox houses, stables, pigsties) and birds (dovecotes and poultry houses).They all display significant variation both over time and regionally, and are closely related to the overall plan of the farmstead. The key building types – which are highlighted - are all explained in further detail in the Glossary.
Barns were built for storing the harvested corn crop in dry and well-ventilated conditions. Threshing barns were solely built for the sole purpose of housing the corn crop, and for beating the grain from the crop by flails (threshing) and then separating it from the husks by winnowing. Combination barns combined this and other functions, such as animal housing. Field barns and outfarms were built in areas where farmsteads and fields were sited at a long distance from each other, and they could combine crop storage and animal housing or specialise in one of these functions.
Straw was supplied from the barn to the cattle yard and its buildings. Grain needed to be stored dry and safe from vermin and pilfering, either in the farmhouse or in the granary – which could be located within the barn or on the upper floor of a cartshed or stable.
Hay, which supplied a valuable source of winter feed, needed to be stored dry and in well-ventilated conditions. Detached hay barns or Dutch barns are usually open sided with roofs supported on high brick, stone, timber or iron piers.
Carts and other forms of machinery needed to be protected from the rain and direct sunlight. Cart sheds and implement stores often face away from the farmyard and may be found close to the stables and roadways, giving direct access to the fields.
Evidence for cattle housing is very rare before the 18th century, and in many areas uncommon before the 19th century. It is largely confined to the longhouses of north and west England, where the family and animals used the same entry and the cattle were stalled at the lower end, the bastle houses of northern England, the linhays of South West England and some detached cow houses and housing in combination barns which are concentrated in the anciently-enclosed landscapes of south and east England and again the north and west.
Cattle were accommodated in yards. The folding of stock in strawed-down yards and feeding them with root crops became more general from the later 18th century, together with the subdivision of yards into smaller areas. In this period, great increases in cattle numbers and new attitudes to animal husbandry led to the construction of vast numbers of new buildings for cattle of various types - loose boxes, open-fronted shelter sheds and hemmels, covered yards from the 1850s - as well as new forms of cow house. Root and fodder stores, were usually located close to where the cattle were stalled.
Purpose-built dairies where milk products were made and stored, as opposed to examples integrated into the planning of the farmhouse (often in a rear wing or out-shut) are very rare.
Buildings for sheep are very rare.
Pigsties were built on most farms, and particularly on dairying establishments where there would have been whey to feed them on. Dovecotes were built to house pigeons, which provided variety to the diets of high-status households and a rich source of manure. Dove holes are also found incorporated into the gable walls or under the eaves of farm buildings.
Some areas of the country developed a specialisation in the production of particular crops such as hops or fruit. In some cases these crops required the construction of particular buildings that are regionally characteristic such as the oast houses of the south-east and West Midlands (especially Herefordshire and Worcestershire) and the cider houses of parts of the West Midlands and the south-west. Small kilns for drying corn (in the wetter northern uplands) and malt for brewing are extremely rare.
A range of other, smaller, buildings can also been found in a farmstead, including boil houses for animal feed; smithies or dog kennels incorporated beneath granary steps.
The key functions of the farmstead also had specific requirements for internal space and plan form, lighting and fittings. Some buildings were highly specialised in function (such as dovecotes, pigsties and threshing barns) whilst others combined in the individual rooms or sections of one range two or more functions.
| Crop Storage and Processing | |
|---|---|
| Key Function | Spacial Requirement |
Storing the harvested corn in dark and well-ventilated conditions. Processing the corn into grain, through threshing and winnowing. |
Corn was stacked in the barn, and sometimes in a stack yard next to the barn as well. Barns have:
Barns may also have evidence for horse, water and steam power. Threshing barns were built solely for the storage and processing of the harvested crop. One or two-storey combination barns combine these functions with others (eg cattle housing, stabling, cartsheds) and so have many more openings and can be floored. Split-level mixing barns developed from the later 18th century as a result of the widespread introduction of machinery for processing corn and fodder. |
Keeping grain clean, away from light and secure from rodents and pilferers. |
Granaries could be:
|
Storing and processing specialist crops such as apples and hops. |
|
Shelter and Housing for Animals |
| Key Function | Spacial Requirement |
Managing and accommodating cattle. |
Yards, sometimes subdivided for different types of stock. Shelter or housing, usually facing onto yard areas, which are:
Interiors to cattle housing could be quite dark with slits providing ventilation, proper lighting being more commonly introduced in the 19th century. |
Stalling horses |
Stables were typically well-lit and ventilated, with typically tall and more narrow doors than to cowhouses. |
Housing other animals such as pigs, poultry and doves |
Pigsties, dovecotes, henhouses, goose pens. Nesting boxes for doves, within dovecotes or incorporated into the exterior walls of farm buildings. |
Storage and Processing of Animal Fodder |
Hay needed to be kept dry and well-ventilated, and was commonly stored in lofts above stables or cattle housing. Some farms needed hay barns. Rooms for mixing and preparing fodder adjoined cattle housing – at one end or from the mid 19th century as a mixing barn. |
Vehicles |
| Key Function | Spacial Requirement |
Sheltering carts, wagons and implements |
Cart sheds for carts and implements, open-fronted with lock-ups for implements and typically facing away from the cattle yard and often onto an access point or track. |
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