| Description | Broad Bottom Farm Detached Barn, Wadsworth. Late 18th century barn rebuilt from an earlier structure.
'Barn, late C18 or early C19. Hammer dressed stone, asbestos roof. Quoins. Segmental arched cart entries with mistal doorways with tie stone jambs. Listed for group value only'.
(English Heritage listed building description. Date listed 21/06/1984. http://list.english heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1228919. Web site accessed 16/10/2013).
The detached barn south of Broad Bottom Farm was the subject of an archaeological assessment by Elizabeth Chamberlin (WYAAS) in 2008. This was undertaken as part of a consultation response to a planning application for 'Barn conversion to dwelling (Amended Scheme) (Listed Building Consent)' (Calderdale Council planning reference number 08/00308/LBC). The fieldwork report and photographic images produced by the assessment are held by WYAAS (Chamberlin, E. (WYAAS). 2008).
Chamberlin described the barn as being rebuilt in 1788 but had earlier origins. This is a stone built combination barn. The assessment identified two roof trusses which were once part of a timber framed building. Both had empty mortises to either side of the soffit of their tie beams for braces, the wooden posts now replaced by stone piers. The truss to the south of the threshing floor has evidence for a partition beneath it. Both trusses are inscribed 'rebuilt 1788'.
An archaeological building recording was undertaken by Stephen Haigh Buildings Archaeologist in 2008. This was a condition attached to the above application. The report which contains annotated drawings and photographic images are held by WYAAS (Haigh, S. 2008). The report is summarised below:
Documentary evidence dates the settlement at Broad Bottom back to the 13th century. The report provides a summary of the documentary evidence from that date to the end of the 19th century.
The barn is built of gritstone rubble laid in watershot courses of varying depths. Central to the building in the south east front elevation is the former cart or sled entrance, now blocked to form a window. It is narrow (2.95m wide) and has tie stone jambs and a segmental arch with projecting key stone. To the left of this is a pedestrian doorway to a shippon or mistal in the lower south west end of the building. There is a second pedestrian doorway at the opposite end of the elevation. The north east elevation is unremarkable except for a large forking hole and two blocked breathers. The long north west elevation has the same arrangement of the south east side. The south west gable has projecting footings and three large shippon windows. Other features in this gable include breathers, putlogs (for construction scaffolding) and an owl hole.
The interior of the barn has three bays. The dividing trusses are carried on stone piers to either side of the central bay. The openings in the piers provided doorways into the different parts of the barn. The central bay has the remains of a flagged floor. The lower shippon has a modern appearance and is rendered with a concrete floor. The timber posts supporting the loft above appear to be remnants of earlier boskins. The loft joists seem later than the posts. The upper shippon has also been altered with two brick walls carrying the loft.
Many of the roof timbers in the barn are of oak and are clearly reused from an earlier timber framed structure, possibly an aisled barn possibly dating from the late 16th to early 17th century. The use of the later stone piers increased the effective width of the barn in a continuation of the aisled barn tradition, whereby the arcade posts were replaced by masonry. The north east truss is the more intact of the two. It has a tie beam with mortises for a post at each end and also mortises for braces. The 'V' struts are a secondary feature, the original king post now removed. |