Building record HGH 049 - Barn at Glebe House

Glebe House is a grade II-listed timber-framed structure in the historic centre of Haughley. The Schedule of Listed Buildings suggests a date of 1611 but its true origin may be slightly later. The barn is a detached timber-framed and weatherboarded three-bay structure of the late-18th or early-19th century which adjoins the road. At just 8.8 m in length by 4.25 m in width (29 ft by 14 ft) it is unusually small, but its original framing survives largely intact with pegged primary braces interrupting the studs and a steeply-pitched clasped-purlin. Three of the four arch-braces of its open trusses also remain in situ. In most respects the building appears to have been designed as a standard threshing barn with full-height central doors to the east and a small rear door against the road to the west, but there is no evidence of a threshing floor and a pegged mortise above the main entrance suggests its original doors may not have been hung in the normal manner. The long, narrow proportions of this orchard are highly suggestive of a medieval burgage plot and the barn may have replaced a medieval roadside tenement. By 1886 it had been united with Glebe House to the south and converted into a storage shed or possibly a stable by inserting lofts in both end-bays and adding a lean-to shed to the front elevation. Small barns of this kind were unable to accommodate the new agricultural machinery of the mid-19th century and are now rare survivals (S1).

Evlauation identified no archaeogically relevant deposits were discovered, with the stratigraphy consisting of heavily disturbed topsoil above natural clays. Some post medieval / modern unstratified finds were found (S2).