Listed Building record MDR14217 - The Barn and other outbuildings, Calk Abbey

Grade II listed stables, barn, brewhouse, smithy and ancillary buildings. They are early 19th century in date, with one range dated 1804. They are built of red brick with plain tile roofs, and have brick coped gables with plain kneelers, and two ridge stacks to the smithy. They comprise two L-ranges set in sequence. They are one and two storeys high. The southern range forms a courtyard with the separately listed stable block and riding school [SMR 17704]. The two-storey smithy and dovecote are flanked by lean-to stable ranges. There is a datestone inscribed 'Novr 11th 1804'. See list description for more details. (1) The barn is probably a Type 6 barn, with a traditional three-bay corn working part, a separate feed preparation bay (mill), and a smaller end bay perhaps for storage. The barn is likely to date from the first half of the 19th century and was probably designed as a flail-threshing barn and one which could be used as a pre-High Farming threshing machine barn. When built, the threshing machine was a well-known alternative although it was not in general use until the 1840s. The separated-off first bay, integral to the design of the building, may have housed hand operated machines to turn straw in to chaff for animal feed before the advent of steam power. The chaff could then be removed from the loft through the high opening in the west end wall, where timber supports of a former platform still project out from the wall. It is unclear whether the chaff cutter was on the ground or upper floor. The south-east corner has been much altered but there is likely to have been an original entry through in to the shelter sheds that bordered this position (now the servery for the National Trust café). The earliest plan of 1857 shows an adjoining structure at the east end and both this plan and later Ordnance Survey maps show it as roofless yet fully enclosed; it is not clear what its original function was. It now has a flat roof and is used as kitchens. The barn has been much altered by the National Trust. It is used as a tearoom/restaurant area with modern access in the south-east corner from the collecting area. Whilst this barn is of traditional form and build quality, its possession of additional separated bays at either end indicates its extended role in feed preparation within a largely livestock dominated estate. The likely timing of its construction probably coincides with a significant change in the economics of agriculture in Britain, from a dominance of arable to pastoral farming. The building is of regional rather than solely of local importance. (2)