Tithe Barn, Stirton with Thorlby, North Yorkshire

Summary

Stone-built tithe barn for the vicar of Skipton, probably C17 but retaining an earlier roof structure from a timber framed building.

Description

Former tithe barn, C17 for the vicar of Skipton, with late C18 alterations.

MATERIALS: mixed rubble, mainly local silt and mudstone but including some Flasby red sandstone, mainly laid to courses; stone slate roof laid to diminishing courses to a stone ridge. Partly surviving cast iron rainwater goods.

PLAN: single cell, five bay barn.

EXTERIOR: West side: the central cart entrance is formed with a timber lintel protected by a projecting course of slates. Some of the jamb-stones are herring-bone tooled. The lintel is formed with two re-used oak beams retaining mortise and peg-holes, as well as pintle-hinge sockets. To the right (south) there is a large area of rebuilt walling with an open ventilation slot to the right. A slight change in the stonework above, level with the cart entrance level, suggests a former eaves line. At the north end of the elevation there is an infilled, inserted doorway with an inserted window beyond. Regularly spaced, neatly formed projecting corbels mark the positions of the roof trusses internally.

East side: to the centre there is a winnowing door with a monolithic lintel and south jamb, the lintel protected by a two-centred relieving arch, the voussoirs being thin slabs. The doorway is infilled with stonework including some large blocks with carved rebates, these stones possibly being former flagstones from the shippon. To either side there are three ventilation slots (those to the north being blocked). At higher level there are four possible putlog holes, with hints in the stonework of a former eaves line just above. Just below the current eaves line there are four projecting corbels similar, although more roughly formed, to those of the west side.

North gable: this retains hints of a lowered roofline in the form of two large stones stepping up from a quoin stone on the east side. The gable end has a high-level, square pitching opening formed with a monolithic surround and infilled with a cast iron multi-paned window. Above there is an owl hole flanked by projecting stones for a landing board.

South gable: this has a square pitching opening with a modern board door that is off-set to the west of the ridgeline. To the east side there is a putlog hole.

INTERIOR the roof structure is entirely of adzed and riven hardwood, probably oak, including the slating battens and common rafters as well as the purlins and trusses. It is traditionally pegged and jointed with no apparent use of ironwork. Many of the purlins have redundant mortises showing that they are reused from other parts of an earlier timber-framed building. Most of the tie beams also have redundant mortises, but these appear to be for braces to wall posts, so unlike the purlins, they have retained their original functions in reuse. The tie beam to the southern-most truss (numbered IIII) has a single redundant mortise which suggests that this was a former upright post.

The four roof trusses are seated kingpost trusses, the kingposts being trenched to support the ridge purlins. The principal rafters appear to be tenoned into the heads of the king posts and are supported by angled struts to the tie beam, with both queen struts and struts to the base of the king posts. The king posts have mortises for wind bracing, although there does not appear to be corresponding mortises in the ridge purlins. The trusses are seated on projecting stone corbels. They support a single pair of purlins, these being staggered, mainly being trenched into the principal rafters. The purlins directly support seven pairs of common rafters per bay. The upper surfaces of the two northern-most tie beams have shallow housings for floor joists.

The lower portion of the walls to the northern half of the building retains traces of limewash. The southern gable end is faced with modern blockwork.

History

The building is thought to have been the barn used for collecting tithes from the township of Stirton for the support of the vicar of Skipton parish and probably dates to the C17. The roof structure retains clear evidence that it was once part of a timber-framed building dating to the early C17, potentially earlier. The 1774 Enclosure Act for Skipton (which also covered Stirton) awarded the vicar of Skipton various parcels of land in lieu of tithes. As a result, the tithe barn is believed to have been converted into a more general purpose barn with the creation of a threshing floor, with an inserted winnowing door to the centre of the eastern elevation and the enlargement of the cart entrance to the centre of the west elevation. There is some evidence that the building was also heightened with a raised eaves line. Herring-bone tooling to some quoin stones also suggests a degree of repair in the C18. Possibly at the same time, or perhaps later, the northern end of the barn was converted into a shippon (cow housing) with the earlier ventilation slots being closed. The inserted window at the north end of the west elevation is likely to date to the later C19, at which time it was considered beneficial to increase natural day-lighting into cow housing. The barn is labelled Tithe Laithe (laithe being the dialect term for barn) on early Ordnance Survey maps, even though by this time the barn no longer acted as a tithe barn. In the 1990s, the southern gable wall was rebuilt with an inner skin of breeze-blocks.

Reasons for Listing

The Tithe Barn, Stirton is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Roof structure: this is of particular interest as there is clear evidence that it was once part of an earlier timber-framed building, potentially dating to the C16;
* Vernacular architecture: the use of materials, the constructional detailing (including the locally unusual corbels suggesting a degree of architectural pretension) and the way that the building was adapted into a more general purpose barn;
* Historic interest: the evidence that the Tithe Barn was modified into a more general purpose barn in the late C18 linked to the documentary evidence that the vicar of Skipton was awarded land in lieu of tithes by the 1774 Enclosure Act for Skipton.

External Links

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