A barn is an agricultural building usually on
farms and used for various purposes. In
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, a barn refers to structures that house
livestock, including
cattle and
horses, as well as equipment and
fodder
Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agriculture, agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, domestic rabbit, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food g ...
, and often grain.
[Allen G. Noble, ''Traditional Buildings: A Global Survey of Structural Forms and Cultural Functions'' (New York: Tauris, 2007), 30.] As a result, the term barn is often qualified e.g. tobacco barn, dairy barn, cow house, sheep barn, potato barn. In the
British Isles, the term barn is restricted mainly to storage structures for
unthreshed cereals and
fodder
Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agriculture, agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, domestic rabbit, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food g ...
, the terms byre or shippon being applied to
cow shelters, whereas horses are kept in buildings known as
stables.
[ In mainland Europe, however, barns were often part of integrated structures known as byre-dwellings (or housebarns in US literature). In addition, barns may be used for equipment storage, as a covered workplace, and for activities such as threshing.
]
Etymology
The word ''barn'' comes from the Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
, for barley (or grain in general), and , for a storage place—thus, a storehouse for barley. The word , also spelled ''bern'' and ''bearn'', is attested to at least sixty times in homilies and other Old English prose. The related words ''bere-tun'' and ''bere-flor'' both meant threshing floor. ''Bere-tun'' also meant granary; the literal translation of ''bere-tun'' is "grain enclosure". While the only literary attestation of ''bere-hus'' (also granary) comes from the ''Dialogi'' of Gregory the Great, there are four known mentions of ''bere-tun'' and two of ''bere-flor''. ''A Thesaurus of Old English'' lists and ("meal-store house") as synonyms for barn.
History
The modern barn largely developed from the three aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...
d medieval barn, commonly known as tithe barn or monastic barn. This, in turn, originated in a 12th-century building tradition, also applied in hall
In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gr ...
s and ecclesiastical buildings. In the 15th century several thousands of these huge barns were to be found in Western Europe. In the course of time, its construction method was adopted by normal farms and it gradually spread to simpler buildings and other rural areas. As a rule, the aisled barn had large entrance doors and a passage corridor for loaded wagons. The storage floors between the central posts or in the aisles were known as bays
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...
or mows (from Middle French ''moye'').
The main types were large barns with sideway passages, compact barns with a central entrance and smaller barns with a transverse passage. The latter also spread to Eastern Europe. Whenever stone walls were applied, the aisled timber frame often gave way to single-naved buildings. A special type were byre-dwellings, which included living quarters, byres and stables, such as the Frisian farmhouse or Gulf house and the Black Forest house. Not all, however, evolved from the medieval barn. Other types descended from the prehistoric longhouse or other building traditions. One of the latter was the Low German (hall) house, in which the harvest was stored in the attic. In many cases, the New World colonial barn evolved from the Low German house, which was transformed to a real barn by first generation colonists from the Netherlands and Germany.
Construction
In the Yorkshire Dales, England, barns, known locally as cowhouses were built from double stone walls with truffs or throughstones acting as wall ties.
In the U.S., older barns were built from timbers hewn from trees on the farm and built as a log crib barn or timber frame, although stone barns were sometimes built in areas where stone was a cheaper building material. In the mid to late 19th century in the U.S. barn framing methods began to shift away from traditional timber framing to "truss framed" or "plank framed" buildings. Truss or plank framed barns reduced the number of timbers instead using dimensional lumber for the rafters, joists, and sometimes the trusses. The joints began to become bolted or nailed instead of being mortised and tenoned. The inventor and patentee of the Jennings Barn claimed his design used less lumber, less work, less time, and less cost to build and were durable and provided more room for hay storage. Mechanization on the farm, better transportation infrastructure, and new technology like a hay fork mounted on a track contributed to a need for larger, more open barns, sawmills using steam power could produce smaller pieces of lumber affordably, and machine cut nails were much less expensive than hand-made (wrought) nails. Concrete block began to be used for barns in the early 20th century in the U.S.
Modern barns are more typically steel buildings. From about 1900 to 1940, many large dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...
barns were built in northern USA. These commonly have gambrel or hip roofs to maximize the size of the hay loft
A loft is a building's upper storey or elevated area in a room directly under the roof (American usage), or just an attic: a storage space under the roof usually accessed by a ladder (primarily British usage). A loft apartment refers to large ...
above the dairy roof, and have become associated in the popular image of a dairy farm. The barns that were common to the wheatbelt held large numbers of pulling horses such as Clydesdales or Percherons. These large wooden barns, especially when filled with hay, could make spectacular fires that were usually total losses for the farmers. With the advent of balers it became possible to store hay and straw
Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has a number ...
outdoors in stacks surrounded by a plowed fireguard. Many barns in the northern United States are painted barn red
A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G. N ...
with a white trim. One possible reason for this is that ferric oxide, which is used to create red paint, was the cheapest and most readily available chemical for farmers in New England and nearby areas. Another possible reason is that ferric oxide acts a preservative and so painting a barn with it would help to protect the structure. The custom of painting barns in red with white trim is widely spread in Scandinavia. Especially in Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
the Falu red with white trims is the traditional colouring of most wooden buildings.
With the popularity of tractors following World War II many barns were taken down or replaced with modern Quonset huts made of plywood or galvanized steel. Beef ranches and dairies began building smaller loftless barns often of Quonset huts or of steel walls on a treated wood frame (old telephone or power poles). By the 1960s it was found that cattle receive sufficient shelter from trees or wind fences (usually wooden slabs 20% open).
Gallery of barns with different wall building materials
File:Scheune Langes Mühle.jpg, Half-timbered barn with brick infill. Uetersen, Germany. This barn's proportions resemble a Low German house.
File:Ysgubor Stryd Lydan, Sain Ffagan.jpg, Half-timbered with wattle-work walls for ventilation. Stryd Lydan Barn, originally at Llannerch Banna, Flintshire, North Wales. Re-erected at the St Fagans National History Museum, Cardiff
Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...
, Wales in 1951.
File:Exterieur OVERZICHT - Ruurlo - 20264854 - RCE.jpg, Wattle work walls in a sheep barn in Ruurlo, Netherlands.
File:2011-10-27 Baudenkmal Rödinghausen 98.jpg, Half-timbered barn walls with stone infill. Rödinghausen, Germany.
File:Orajärvi in summer.jpg, A barn in Orajärvi village of Sodankylä, Lapland
Lapland may refer to:
Places
*Lapland or Sápmi, an ethno-cultural region stretching over northern Fennoscandia (parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia)
**Lapland (Finland) (''Lappi''/''Lappland''), a Finnish region
*** Lapland (former pr ...
, Finland.
File:Matsalu metsas.jpg, Old hay barn at the end of Suitsu hiking trail at the Matsalu National Park in Pärnu County
Pärnu County ( et, Pärnu maakond or ''Pärnumaa''; german: Kreis Pernau) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is situated in the south-western part of the country, on the coast of Gulf of Riga, and borders Lääne and Rapla counties to the nor ...
, Estonia.
File:Surikow;s barn.JPG, A barn (ovin) in the museum-estate of Surikov. Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
File:Овин в Витославлицах.jpg, A barn (ovin) from Vakhonkino village, Kaduysky raion, Vologda oblast, Russia. Vitoslavlitsy museum, Veliky Novgorod.
File:2011-10-27 Rödinghausen. Baudenkmal. Hansastraße (4).jpg, Half-timbered wall with wattle and daub infill. Some of the plaster coating survives. Rödinghausen, Germany.
File:25104100067 Syke Fuldenriede 4 Scheune.jpg, A rare half-timbered barn with board infill in Syke, Lower Saxony, Germany.
File:GrangeBarn.jpg, Grange barn, Coggeshall, England. This is a ''studded barn'' so the wall sheathing must be applied horizontally and covered with a siding material in this case clapboards (weatherboards).
File:Metylovice, Na kopci, stodola 01.jpg, A type of barn in Metylovice, Czech Republic with stone piers and an infill of horizontal timbers.
File:MBL Olsztynek - 15b. Budynek gospodarczy z Kwietniewa.jpg, Board-on-board siding and half timber-framed barn in Olsztynek
Olsztynek (german: Hohenstein in Ostpreußen) is a town in northern Poland, in Olsztyn County, in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. It is the administrative seat of Gmina Olsztynek. It is part of the historic region of Masuria.
Geography
Ol ...
, north Poland
File:HennikerNH BennettFarmBarn.jpg, Timber framed with the sheathing covered in clapboards. New Hampshire, U.S.A.
File:Zicht op doorgang van de schuur - Schoonebeek - 20411613 - RCE.jpg, Rare walls of boards and thatch. Drenthe
Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Nov ...
, Netherlands
File:Barn end - geograph.org.uk - 1628962.jpg, Gable end of a brick barn with ventilation holes built into the brickwork.
File:19th_Century_Fieldstone_Barn_in_Southern_Ontario,_Canada.jpg, 19th-century fieldstone barn near Rockwood, Ontario, Canada.
File:Oak Hall Historic District - Irvin Barn.JPG, Limestone walls in the Oak Hall Historic District
Oak Hall Historic District is a national historic district located at College Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania. The district includes 17 contributing buildings and 3 contributing structures in Oak Hall. The district includes the mansion ho ...
, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
File:Gable end - geograph.org.uk - 202611.jpg, Stone barns are common in parts of the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, France, and some Mediterranean countries. The projecting stones (which are a type of wall tie) are a style in the Yorkshire Dales, England.
File:Abiah Taylor Barn ChesCo PA.jpg, Abidiah Taylor Barn Chester County, Pennsylvania. Part of the Taylor-Cope Historic District. Built in either 1724 (date stone) or 1744 (wooden beam investigation), it is one of the oldest extant barns in the United States. Field stone walls.
File:Farm buildings, Ewelme Park - geograph.org.uk - 677140.jpg, The combination of brick quoins with flint walls is common in (mostly older) buildings in this area of the Chilterns, Oxfordshire, England.
File:Rudge Farm 3 - geograph.org.uk - 1303923.jpg, A rare wall material is Cob which is similar to adobe. Devon, England.
File:SMBL stodola Jaszczew 1870 p.jpg, Round log barn in the skansen (open-air museum) in Sanok, Poland
File:Hda gammelgård 20101010 (15).jpg, Hewn log barn painted red in Hedemora, Sweden.
File:Dutch barn - geograph.org.uk - 458981.jpg, No walls are a characteristic of what in the United Kingdom is called a Dutch barn.
File:Barn opposite Sampson's Hall - geograph.org.uk - 1474507.jpg, Corrugated metal siding
Uses
In older style North American barns, the upper area was used to store hay and sometimes grain. This is called the mow (rhymes with cow) or the hayloft
A hayloft is a space above a barn, stable or cow-shed, traditionally used for storage of hay or other fodder for the animals below. Haylofts were used mainly before the widespread use of very large hay bales, which allow simpler handling of bulk ...
. A large door at the top of the ends of the barn could be opened up so that hay could be put in the loft. The hay was hoisted into the barn by a system containing pulley
A pulley is a wheel on an axle or shaft that is designed to support movement and change of direction of a taut cable or belt, or transfer of power between the shaft and cable or belt. In the case of a pulley supported by a frame or shell that ...
s and a trolley that ran along a track attached to the top ridge of the barn. Trap doors in the floor allowed animal feed to be dropped into the mangers for the animals.
In New England it is common to find barns attached to the main farmhouse ( connected farm architecture), allowing for chores to be done while sheltering the worker from the weather.
In the middle of the twentieth century the large broad roof of barns were sometimes painted with slogans in the United States. Most common of these were the 900 barns painted with ads for Rock City.
In the past barns were often used for communal gatherings, such as barn dance
A barn dance is any kind of dance involving traditional or folk music with traditional dancing, occasionally held in a barn, but, these days, much more likely to be in any suitable building.
The term “barn dance” is usually associated w ...
s.
Features
A farm may have buildings of varying shapes and sizes used to shelter large and small animals and other uses. The enclosed pens used to shelter large animals are called stalls and may be located in the cellar or on the main level depending in the type of barn. Other common areas, or features, of an American barn include:
*a tack room (where bridle
A bridle is a piece of equipment used to direct a horse. As defined in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the "bridle" includes both the that holds a bit that goes in the mouth of a horse, and the reins that are attached to the bit.
Headgear w ...
s, saddles, etc. are kept), often set up as a breakroom
A mailroom (US) or post room (UK) is a room in which incoming and outgoing mail is processed and sorted. Mailrooms are commonly found in schools, offices, apartment buildings, and the generic post office. A person who works in a mailroom is known a ...
*a feed room, where animal feed
Animal feed is food given to domestic animals, especially livestock, in the course of animal husbandry. There are two basic types: fodder and forage. Used alone, the word ''feed'' more often refers to fodder. Animal feed is an important input to ...
is stored – not typically part of a modern barn where feed bales are piled in a stackyard
*a drive bay, a wide corridor for animals or machinery
*a silo
A silo (from the Greek σιρός – ''siros'', "pit for holding grain") is a structure for storing bulk materials. Silos are used in agriculture to store fermented feed known as silage, not to be confused with a grain bin, which is used t ...
where fermented grain or hay (called ensilage or haylage) is stored.
*a milkhouse for dairy barns; an attached structure where the milk is collected and stored prior to shipment
*a grain (soy, corn, etc.) bin for dairy barns, found in the mow and usually made of wood with a chute to the ground floor providing access to the grain, making it easier to feed the cows.
*modern barns often contain an indoor corral with a squeeze chute for providing veterinary treatment to sick animals.
*In North Yorkshire cowhouses would have a muck hole (muck’ole in the local dialect) to allow manure to be deposited outside the barn without the cowhand leaving the building.
*In North Yorkshire a cowhouse would have a small door or forking hole (forking’ole in the local dialect) high up on the wall to enable fodder to be 'forked' into the baux or baulks (hayloft).
*Some English barns would have a gin gang, a semi-circular extension added to house a horse engine.
Derivatives
The physics term " barn", which is a subatomic unit of area, 10−28 m2, came from experiments with uranium nuclei during World War II, wherein they were described colloquially as "big as a barn", with the measurement officially adopted to maintain security around nuclear weapons research.
Barn idioms
*"He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn" is a popular expression for a person having poor aim when throwing an object or when shooting at something.
*To "lock the barn door after the horse has bolted" implies that one has solved a problem
Problem solving is the process of achieving a goal by overcoming obstacles, a frequent part of most activities. Problems in need of solutions range from simple personal tasks (e.g. how to turn on an appliance) to complex issues in business an ...
too late to prevent it.
* "Were you born/raised in a barn?" is an accusation used differently in various parts of the English-speaking world, but most commonly as a reprimand when someone exhibits poor manners by either using ill-mannered language (particularly if related to manure), or leaving doors open.
*"Your barn door is open" is used as a euphemism
A euphemism () is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes ...
to remind someone to zip the fly of their trousers.
*To "barnstorm" is to travel quickly around a large area making frequent public appearances.
Types
Barns have been classified by their function, structure, location, or other features. Sometimes the same building falls into multiple categories.
* Apple barn or fruit barn – for the storage of fruit crops
*Bank barn
A bank barn or banked barn is a style of barn noted for its accessibility, at ground level, on two separate levels. Often built into the side of a hill, or bank, both the upper and the lower floors area could be accessed from ground level, one are ...
– A multilevel building built into a banking so the upper floor is accessible to a wagon, sometimes accessed by a bridge or ramp.
*Bastle house
Bastel, bastle, or bastille houses are a type of construction found along the Anglo-Scottish border, in the areas formerly plagued by border reivers. They are fortified farmhouses, characterised by security measures against raids. Their name ...
- a defensive structure to guard against border reivers
Border reivers were Cattle raiding, raiders along the Anglo-Scottish border from the late 13th century to the beginning of the 17th century. They included both Scotland, Scottish and England, English people, and they raided the entire border ...
with accommodation on the lower floor for livestock.
* Bridge barn or covered bridge barn – general terms for barns accessed by a bridge rather than a ramp.
* Boô – A sheep-barn and dwelling in the Netherlands, seasonal or sometimes year round.
* Pennsylvania barn (U.S.) of which there are sub-categories such as ''standard'' and ''sweitzer'' types. Also known as ''forebay'' or ''porch barns''.
*Cantilever barn – a type of log crib barn with cantilevered upper floors which developed in Appalachia (U.S.A.)
*Combination barn — found throughout England, especially in areas of pastoral
A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...
farming and the standard barn type in America. This general term means the barns were used for both crop storage and as a byre to house animals.
* Crib barn – Horizontal log structures with up to four cribs (assemblies of crossing timbers) found primarily in the southern U.S.A.
*Drying barns for drying crops in Finland and Sweden are called ''riihi'' and ''ria'', respectively.
*New World Dutch Barn
Dutch barn is the name given to markedly different types of barns in the United States and Canada, and in the United Kingdom. In the United States, Dutch barns (a. k. a. New World Dutch barns) represent the oldest and rarest types of barns. T ...
– A barn type in the U.S. Also see ''Dutch barn (U.K.)'' in Other farm buildings section below.
* New England barn - a common style of barn found in rural New England and in the U.S.
* English barn (U.S.), also called a Yankee or Connecticut barn – A widespread barn type in the U.S.
* Granary — to store grain after it is threshed, some barns contain a room called a granary, some barns like a rice barn
A rice barn is a type of barn used worldwide for the storage and drying of harvested rice. The barns' designs are usually specialized to their function, and as such may vary between countries or between provinces. Rice barns in Southeast Asia ap ...
blur the line between a barn and granary.
* Gothic arch barn, has profile shaped as a Gothic arch, which became feasible to be formed by laminated members
* Ground stable barn, a barn with space for livestock at ground level
* Housebarn, also called a byre-dwelling – A combined living space and barn, relatively common in old Europe but rare in North America. Also, longhouses were housebarns.
* Pole barn — a simple structure that consists of poles embedded in the ground to support a roof, with or without exterior walls. The pole barn lacks a conventional foundation, thus greatly reducing construction costs. Traditionally used to house livestock, hay or equipment.
*Potato barn or potato house– A semi-subterranean or two story building for storage of potatoes or sweet potatoes.
* Prairie barn – A general term for barns in the Western U.S.
*Rice barn
A rice barn is a type of barn used worldwide for the storage and drying of harvested rice. The barns' designs are usually specialized to their function, and as such may vary between countries or between provinces. Rice barns in Southeast Asia ap ...
and the related winnowing barn
*Round barn
A round barn is a historic barn design that could be octagonal, polygonal, or circular in plan. Though round barns were not as popular as some other barn designs, their unique shape makes them noticeable. The years from 1880 to 1920 represent th ...
, built in a round shape the term often is generalized to the include polygonal barn and octagonal barn
*Swing beam barn
Swing or swinging may refer to:
Apparatus
* Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth
* Pendulum, an object that swings
* Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus
* Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse
* Swing rid ...
– A rare barn type in part of the U.S. designed for threshing with animals walking around a pole held by a ''swing beam'' inside the barn.
* Tobacco barn – for drying of tobacco leaves
* Tithe barn — a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing the tithes — a tenth of the farm's produce which had to be given to the church
* Threshing barn — built with a threshing floor for the processing and storage of cereals
A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grain crops are grown in greater quantities and provide more foo ...
, to keep them in dry conditions. Characterised by large double door
A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide security b ...
s in the centre of one side, a smaller one on the other, and storage for cereal harvest
Harvesting is the process of gathering a ripe crop from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper. On smaller farms with minimal mechanization, harvesting is the most labor-i ...
or unprocessed on either side. In England the grain was beaten from the crop by flails and then separated from the husks by winnowing between these doors. The design of these typically remained unchanged between the 12th and 19th centuries. The large doors allow for a horse wagon to be driven through; the smaller ones allow for the sorting of sheep and other stock in the spring and summer.
Other farm buildings often associated with barns
* Carriage house — cart shed
* Dutch barn (U.K.) — an open sided structure for hay storage. The type with a movable roof is called a hay barrack in the U.S or a ''hooiberg'' (''kapberg'') in the Netherlands.
* A corn crib
A corn crib or corncrib is a type of granary used to dry and store corn. It may also be known as a cornhouse or corn house.
Overview
After the harvest and while still on the cob, corn is placed in the crib either with or without the husk. The ...
—a well ventilated storage space for dried ears of maize (corn).
* A granary or hórreo — a storage space for threshed grains, sometimes within a barn or as a separate building.
* Linhay (linny, linney, linnies) — A shed, often with a lean-to roof but may be a circular linhay to store hay on the first floor with either cattle on the ground floor (cattle linhay), or farm machinery (cart linhay). Characterised by an open front with regularly spaced posts or pillars.
* Milk room or milk house — to store milk.
* Oast houses — an outbuilding used for drying hops
Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant ''Humulus lupulus'', a member of the Cannabaceae family of flowering plants. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavouring, and stability agent in beer, to whi ...
as part of the brewing process.
* Shelter sheds — open-fronted structures for stock
* Shippon — a shed which houses oxen
An ox ( : oxen, ), also known as a bullock (in BrE
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, "English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer spec ...
and cattle. Has fodder
Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agriculture, agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, domestic rabbit, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food g ...
storage above, regularly spaced doors on the yard side, a pitching door or window on the first floor.
* Stable
A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...
— Usually for housing horses.
Historic farm buildings
Old farm buildings of the countryside contribute to the landscape, and help define the history of the location, i.e. how farming took place in the past, and how the area has been settled throughout the ages. They also can show the agricultural methods, building materials, and skills that were used. Most were built with materials reflecting the local geology of the area. Building methods include earth walling and thatching
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...
.
Buildings in stone and brick, roofed with tile or slate, increasingly replaced buildings in clay, timber and thatch from the later 18th century. Metal roofs started to be used from the 1850s. The arrival of canals and railways brought about transportation of building materials over greater distances.
Clues determining their age and historical use can be found from old maps, sale documents, estate plans, and from a visual inspection of the building itself, noting (for example) reused timbers, former floors, partitions, doors and windows.
The arrangement of the buildings within the farmstead can also yield valuable information on the historical farm usage and landscape value. Linear farmsteads were typical of small farms, where there was an advantage to having cattle and fodder within one building, due to the colder climate. Dispersed clusters of unplanned groups were more widespread. Loose courtyard plans built around a yard were associated with bigger farms, whereas carefully laid out courtyard plans designed to minimize waste and labour were built in the latter part of the 18th century.
The barns are typically the oldest and biggest buildings to be found on the farm. Many barns were converted into cow houses and fodder processing and storage buildings after the 1880s. Many barns had owl holes
An owl hole is a structural entrance built into buildings (such as mills and barns) to allow predatory birds, typically barn owls (''Tyto alba''), to enter. The birds prey on farm vermin, and therefore benefit the human owner of the structure in a ...
to allow for access by barn owls, encouraged to aid vermin control.
The stable
A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...
is typically the second-oldest building type on the farm. They were well built and placed near the house due to the value that the horses had as draught animals
Modern granaries were built from the 18th century. Complete granary interiors, with plastered walls and wooden partitioning to grain bins, are very rare.
Longhouses are an ancient building where people and animals used the same entrance. These can still be seen, for example, in North Germany, where the Low Saxon house
The Low German house or ''Fachhallenhaus'' is a type of Timber framing, timber-framed farmhouse found in northern Germany and the easternmost Netherlands, which combines living quarters, byre and barn under one roof. It is built as a large hall ...
occurs.
Few interiors of the 19th century cow houses have survived unaltered due to dairy-hygiene regulations in many countries.
Old farm buildings may show the following signs of deterioration: rotting in timber-framed constructions due to damp, cracks in the masonry from movement of the walls, e.g. ground movement, roofing problems (e.g. outward thrust of it, deterioration of purlins and gable ends), foundation problems, penetration of tree roots; lime mortar being washed away due to inadequate weather-protection. Walls made of cob, earth mortars or walls with rubble cores are all highly vulnerable to water penetration, and replacement or covering of breathable materials with cement or damp-proofing materials may trap moisture within the walls.[How to deal with damp produced by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings gives useful guidance]
In England and Wales some of these historical buildings have been given " listed building" status, which provides them some degree of archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
protection.
Some grant schemes are available to restore Historic Farmland buildings, for example Natural England's Environmental Stewardship, Countryside Stewardship and Environmentally Sensitive Areas Scheme
The Environmentally Sensitive Areas Scheme was an agri-environment scheme run by the UK Government within the 22 designated Environmentally Sensitive Areas.
The scheme was superseded in 2005 by the Environmental Stewardship schemes.
United Ki ...
s.
See also
* Barn Church, Kew
*Barn conversion
The conversion of barns involves the conversion of old farming barns to structures of commercial or residential use.
Responsible residential conversion
According to the United States National Park Service, a medium-sized barn with sufficient ext ...
*Barn dance
A barn dance is any kind of dance involving traditional or folk music with traditional dancing, occasionally held in a barn, but, these days, much more likely to be in any suitable building.
The term “barn dance” is usually associated w ...
* National Barn Dance
*Barn raising
A barn raising, also historically called a raising bee or rearing in the U.K., is a collective action of a community, in which a barn for one of the members is built or rebuilt collectively by members of the community. Barn raising was particular ...
* Barnstar
*Barnyard
A barnyard or farmyard is an enclosed or open yard adjoining a barn,Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press 2009. Barn. n. and, typically, related farm buildings, including a farmhouse. Enclosed b ...
* Car barn
*Dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...
* Dovecote — built to house pigeons, which provided variety to the diets of high-status households and a rich source of manure. Examples survive from the medieval period.
*Farmhouse
FarmHouse (FH) is a social Fraternities and sororities in North America, fraternity founded at the University of Missouri on April 15, 1905. It became a national organization in 1921. Today FarmHouse has 33 active chapters and four associate ch ...
* Functionally classified barn
* Gambrel roof
* Gin gang or round house — an extension to a threshing barn. It contained a horse driven engine, used to power a threshing machine. Sometimes called a wheel house. Water power and wind power were also used to drive the machine, and by the 1850s portable steam engine machines were used. Horse-engines, original threshing or winnowing machines are exceptionally rare.
*Goat tower
A goat tower is a multi-story decorative goat house, modeled on a European garden folly, an early example of which was built in Portugal in the 19th century. The first goat tower was built at Aveleda, a winery in Portugal's Vinho Verde region. ...
*Hayrack
A hayrack ( sl, kozolec) is a freestanding vertical drying rack found chiefly in Slovenia. Hayracks are permanent structures, primarily made of wood, upon which fodder for animals is dried, although their use is not limited to drying hay. Other ...
* Historic Barns of Connecticut
* Ovinnik
* Scaffold (barn)
*Shed
A shed is typically a simple, single-story roofed structure that is used for hobbies, or as a workshop in a back garden or on an allotment. Sheds vary considerably in their size and complexity of construction, from simple open-sided ones de ...
* Treppenspeicher
* The Wonderful Barn
References
External links
Dairy Barn History
www.thebarnjournal.org
National Barn Alliance
Barn Again! program
Timber Framers Guild
* The Spanish borda (borde) is a type of barn or housebarn
Excellent paper on historic barns, focus on Ohio, USA
Barn types and information from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
{{Authority control
Agricultural buildings
Vernacular architecture