Description

GREAT ALTCAR

1283/0/10044 LORD SEFTON WAY
12-JUL-07 Altcar Hall Farm Barn

II

Barn. Thought to be of mid-C17 date and associated with Altcar Hall of the same period, with later alterations and additions.

MATERIALS: Stone and brick beneath a slate roof around a timber frame.

PLAN: The barn is approximately T-shaped with its long axis running almost east-west.

EXTERIOR: Constructed of stone and brick beneath a slate roof. The main south face is constructed of stone to windowsill height and brick above. It has a full-height C20 double timber door towards the east end with two stable doors and two windows towards the west end. The west gable is of stone construction with access to a hayloft via an external stone staircase. The north face is of brick with a single window at the western end and a full-height modern double timber door towards the west end directly opposite that in the south face. An attached brick-built lean to houses two stables at the east end of the north face. The east gable is stone built with a square timber hayloft intake high in the wall. The attached projecting east range consists of a brick-built stable with two stable doors giving access from the yard, a ground floor window and a taking in door to the hayloft above.

INTERIOR: The principal features of note includes the building's well-preserved timber framing of considerable complexity around which the present structure has been constructed. The barn is of at least seven bays defined by substantial cruck frames, many of which are supported by large brick pillars. The eastern half of the barn is currently used for stabling, is open to roof height, and is separated from the western half of the building by a brick wall. One of the cruck frames retains part of its infill panelling which appears to be of wattle and daub. The western half of the barn consists of two separate stables with haylofts above separated by a brick wall. Some modern iron girders support the hayloft floors. Many of the barn's roof timbers, including re-used components, appear to be of considerable date and demonstrate notable carpentry expertise.

HISTORY: Altcar Hall was in existence in about 1646 when it was assigned as a parsonage house with orchards, gardens, yards, stables and outhouses. The precise date of construction of Altcar Hall Farm Barn is unknown but the building appears on the 1845 Ordnance Survey map which shows a road or track leading from the north west directly to the building. Map evidence indicates that at an unspecified date after 1927 the attached south east range of the building is demolished and then rebuilt but as a separate structure, and a structure containing two stables is added on to the north face of the barn at its east end.

SOURCES: Conservation Officer, West Lancashire District Council.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: Altcar Hall Farm Barn is a stone and brick construction of uncertain date which is associated with Altcar Hall, a building known from documentary sources to have been in existence in the mid-C17th. Although the barn has been subjected to some modern additions and alterations during the C20th it still retains a well-preserved timber-framed structure consisting of at least seven bays with cruck frames together with substantial amounts of original and reused roof timbers of particularly good quality.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26671393

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)