Listed Building: Former threshing barn with integral stable, Tostock (DSF18972)

A former threshing barn and stable, likely to have been constructed in the early sixteenth century, altered and extended in the eighteenth century and nineteenth century, and converted to domestic use in 2025. The barn once formed part of a farmstead with the early-C16 farmhouse that stands to the south (now called The Lodge, Grade II listed). The two buildings are likely to date to the same period of development, in the first half of the C16. C17 documentary evidence identifies the farmhouse as the former rectory of Tostock; the house and barn may have been purpose built for a clergyman. In its original form, the timber-framed barn was four bays long. It comprised a three-bay threshing barn with an integral stable in the easternmost bay. A floor structure above the stable housed a hayloft. The timber frame was infilled by panels of wattle and daub. In the C18, the barn was extended by two bays to the west. This extension had a lower wallplate than the principal structure. It may be around this time that the tie-beams of the original barn were replaced with the current timbers, supported by hanging knees. In the early-C19 a midstrey was added to the north side of the threshing floor, creating the present T-shaped plan. Later in the same century the roof structure over the whole barn was replaced. At some point the western bay was adapted to form an open-sided cart lodge facing south. In the C20 a brick-built lean-to was added to the east side of the midstrey. Map evidence shows that further farm buildings once stood on the south and north sides of the barn. In the early-C19 a large range stood perpendicular to the west end of the barn, running south. By 1884 it was mirrored by a corresponding range at the east end of the barn, creating a yard for cattle. A pair of shelters, possibly evolving from a piggery, formed a second yard west of the midstrey. These buildings were all demolished by 1950. MATERIALS The early timber framing is oak and elm, with later pine timbers incorporated in the roofs and extensions. The roofs are covered in pantiles and sheet metal, and the walls are clad in horizontal weatherboards. PLAN The building has an open domestic plan, but the arrangement of its historic threshing doors remains legible. EXTERIOR The building has a T-shaped layout with a C19 midstrey with lateral outshut projecting north of the central bays. The roof is raised over the former entrance bay on the south side. The whole building stands on a brick plinth and has pitched roofs terminating in gable ends. It is six bays long beneath a continuous roof, the three western bays having two storeys. The fenestration all dates to the 2025 conversion to residential use. INTERIOR The timber frame remains visible, excepting where it meets floor structures. The original C16 wall framing of full-height studs survives except for the west gable, which was removed at the extension of the barn, and a section of wallplate over the former south doorway. Local like-for-like replacement has introduced some recent timberwork, identifiable as honest repairs. There are jowled corner and storey posts, wind braces and tension braces, notches for wattle and daub, and face-halved and bridled scarf joints which stand out as features of the original building. The storey posts of the original central bays have mortices for arch braces. The eastern bay is shorter than the others. It is the only bay with a midrail, which corresponds to mortices on the storey posts and together indicate a missing floor structure. This is the former stable and hayloft. In the east wall, diamond mortices and a shutter groove indicate an original window position. On the south wall there is a pair of door lintels; rebates on the eastern doorway show that its door opened outwards and likely indicates the location of the original hayloft stair. The early-C19 midstrey is of nailed studwork and is two bays long. The north gable wall, which originally housed large double doors (now glazed), incorporates a reused C16 beam with diamond mortices as a wallplate. The two western bays incorporate a patchwork of timbers. This area has been serially altered to account for the introduction of a loft level, the presence of the (now demolished) south-west range, the use of the western bay as an open-sided cart lodge, and its recent domestic conversion. The earliest timbers here are pegged but may have been reused. Precise dating is uncertain but these bays are likely to have been built in the C18 and then re-roofed along with the rest of the barn in the late C19. The roof is formed of common pine rafters with clasped side purlins and an apex ridge-board.