Summary

Barn, of late-eighteenth/early-nineteenth century date and local vernacular style. The large late-nineteenth century barn attached to its south elevation is not included in the listing.

Description

Barn, late-C18/early-C19.

MATERIALS: local limestone with some sandstone and Welsh slate roofs.

PLAN: the barn is situated immediately south of a narrow lane that separates it from the wider Helton Head farmstead. It is placed parallel to the road.

EXTERIOR: North Barn is single-storey and constructed of roughly squared local stone. It has a steeply pitched roof and large, prominent quoins to all elevations. The north elevation has a single entrance with alternating quoins, a wooden lintel, and a boarded plank door. To either side there is a horizontal ventilation slit, and to the upper left there is an inset, quoined rectangular opening. There are also two, blocked ground floor ventilation slits. The right return is blind. The left return has an inset entrance with timber lintel and a plank door, flanked to either side by a ventilation slit, and there is an owl hole to the apex. The south elevation has an opposing byre door with alternating quoins and a pair of horizontal ventilation slits (only visible from within).

INTERIOR: North Barn is divided by a stone wall into two separate byres. The under housing of the eastern byre has plastered walls and substantial sawn timber loft joists. The stalls are arranged lengthwise with a central feeding and manure passage of cobbles edged with large stone kerbs. The southern line of stalls has wooden frames, chamfered stall posts and gates to the front secured with strap hinges. The northern line of stalls is formed of timber frames filled with wide rustic boards and straight stall posts. There are some ceramic feeding troughs inserted into the stall floors. The western byre has plastered walls above concrete and is open to the roof. It comprises a byre formed of a wide, central drain edged in large stones and with two opposing lines of timber stalls formed of boarded dividers with stall-posts. Stalls mostly retain a pair of ceramic feeding troughs set into the floor. There is an opposing byre door in the south elevation.

History

The Historic Environment Record records that the medieval village of Helton extends to within 100m of Helton Head Farmstead; it also notes the presence of strip lynchets and other earthworks in the surrounding fields including the field within which North Barn sits. The building is depicted on the Tithe Map of 1837-1838 with a rectangular footprint. Although separated from it by a narrow lane, the barn forms part of Helton Head which is described in the tithe apportionment as 'a dwelling house and homestead'. From at least 1795 onwards the farm was under the ownership of the Lowther Family, who had held the property as part of the manor of Helton, a medieval feudal estate they inherited in 1680. The first edition Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1863 depicts the barn and the farmstead, the former with the same footprint. Its footprint remains the same today.
 
A valuation office survey in 1910 describes the buildings comprising Helton Head as including ‘land house and buildings to the extent of 145 acres'. Each building is described in detail including North Barn, which is described as ‘Byre for 8, calf pen, byre for 4 + 4 calf pens, lofted.

Reasons for Listing

North Barn, of later-C18 or early-C19 date, at Helton Head, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a good example of pre-1850 cattle housing constructed in the local vernacular style and materials, which contributes to our understanding of regional diversity in England;

* significant original fabric is retained that clearly expresses the original functions of the building and the original plan form of underbyre with hayloft above.

Group value:

* taken together with the listed Helton Head farmhouse and associated buildings, it illustrates the type of small Westmorland farmstead that characterises the area.

Recommended Books

• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)