Building record WFL 040 - Barn at Slough Hall

The barn at Slough Hall is an impressive timber-framed and weather-boarded structure in 8 bays that extends to 80 feet in length by 21 feet in overall width, excluding an original porch that projects by 12 feet. Although many individual timbers were re-used from at least one earlier barn, the present frame dates from the second quarter of the 17th century and appears contemporary with the adjacent farmhouse. The frame was intended to be visible from the exterior, with infill of wattle-and-daub, and was provided with decorative external wall braces that remain partly intact. While the timbers of the main walls and porch are largely original, both gables have been rebuilt, all but three tie-beam braces have been removed or replaced, and the roof was entirely renewed in the mid-20th century. The 17th century roof would undoubtedly have been a clasped purlin structure, probably with wind braces, and pitched either at 55 degrees for straw thatch 50 degrees for peg-tiles – of which two possibilities the former is by far the more likely (S1).