Former threshing barn at Lower Burcote Farm, Worfield, Shropshire

Summary

Former threshing barn. C18 with C19, C20 and C21 alterations.

Description

Former threshing barn. C18 with C19, C20 and C21 alterations.

MATERIALS: built of coursed local red sandstone, with brick dressings. The roof is covered in plain clay tiles. The doors are timber; the upper half of the south door is of corrugated iron. Internally, the floors and partition walls are of brick.

PLAN: three-bay threshing barn.

EXTERIOR: the principal elevations (north and south) have a symmetrical arrangement of a central full-height doorway beneath a depressed brick arch, flanked by four diamond-shaped brick air vents; although the west bay of the south elevation has three misaligned ventilation grilles and an inserted C19 brick doorway with a segmental head. The arrangement of diamond-shaped air vents is repeated to both the west and east elevation, with an additional diamond-shaped air vent to each gable, and a stone owl hole to the apex. To the east end is an inserted brick doorway with a segmental head. At eaves level there is a band of nesting boxes continuing around all four elevations.

INTERIOR: the central bay is flanked by full-height brick walls, with full-height openings to the centre; that to the west bay has a moulded brick arch head. The roof is late C20 or early C21 with a double row of purlins and common rafters.

History

The three-bay threshing barn appears to have been built in the C18. It may have been connected with Davenport House (Grade I) built in 1726 and about 700m to the north-east which retains fragments of red sandstone boundary walls to its Grade II* registered park and garden, or Burcote House (Grade II), an C18 rebuilding of an earlier house, located about 150m to the west, but there is no known documentary evidence to support either association. The barn is shown on both the 1832-1833 Ordnance Survey (OS) map and the 1838 tithe map when it is in the ownership of John Bache, a prominent landowner of the manor of Wyken. It is described on the apportionment as a barn with fold yard, suggesting that it was partly used to house livestock at this time, although the presence of a possible granary to the north-east (demolished by the late C19), and that the surrounding fields were predominantly arable, suggests threshing also continued.

The barn appears to have been altered in the C19, and it is thought that the brick air vents, brick arched doorways, brick partitions, and brick floors date from the early to mid-C19. In the mid-to late C19 the stable and cowshed, that flank the west and east side of the fold yard, were built. The cowshed was demolished in 2020.

Reasons for Listing

The former threshing barn at Lower Burcote Farm is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an example of an C18 threshing barn that, being built of the local red sandstone, has a strong vernacular character;
* for the good survival of historic building fabric and its continued legibility as a three-bay threshing farm;
* for the architectural quality of the C19 alterations to the barn which forms an important aspect of the building’s evolution, and complements the original coursed local red sandstone construction.

Historic interest:

* although the precise origins of the building are unclear it is likely to be of pre-1750 date and contributes to our understanding of the development and strengthening of regional farming traditions and how they have evolved.

Group value

* with the nearby Burcote House (Grade II) and Davenport House (Grade I) as well as the registered park and garden of Davenport House (Grade II*).

External Links

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.