Home Barn at Wilton Farm

Summary

Aisled barn, dating from the 17th or 18th century.

Reasons for Designation

Home barn, Wilton Farm, Little Marlow, erected in the C17 or C18 is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Degree of architectural interest:

* the barn retains a considerable amount of early fabric, despite later modifications.

Degree of historic interest:

* it is a good and characteristic example of a historic threshing barn, with evidence of later adaptation for changes in farming practices.
* the survival of historic fabric and plan form further contributes to the legibility of the building's historic function.

Group value:

* it has a strong historic functional relationship with the adjacent granary (Grdae II)

History

Formerly known as Little Marlow Farm, Wilton Farm is located at the northern end of the village of Little Marlow. The farm buildings are partially indicated on Jefferys map of Buckinghamshire dating from 1770. The earliest mapping evidence for the barn and the granary dates from the first half of the C19, where they both appear on an 1821 enclosure map and the Little Marlow Tithe Map of 1846. The barn is visible on both maps as a large L-shaped structure, appearing to incorporate a since replaced building to the east and lean-to structures to the south-west corner. The accompanying apportionment notes that the farmhouse, outbuildings, yards and gardens were owned by Sir George Nugent, baronet, and occupied by tenant farmer William Morris. The manor of Little Marlow, including Little Marlow Farm, had been acquired by Nugent in 1810, and was subsequently incorporated into the Westhorpe Estate. The latter’s manorial seat was located 1km south-west of Little Marlow at Westhorpe House, which had been built in the early C18 by James Chase, MP for Great Marlow.

In 1860, Little Marlow Farm encompassed 316 acres and was advertised for sale as part of the Westhorpe Estate. At that time, the 2,105-acre estate comprised Westhorpe House, Little Marlow Manor House, six farms, woodland and arable land and most of the village of Little Marlow including cottages, tenements and the King’s Head Inn. The estate was sold in its entirety to the trustees of John Pattison Ellames and descended with the family until 1917, when it was subdivided and advertised for sale at auction. Little Marlow Farm, a ‘useful mixed farm’ of 219 acres with ‘good house and buildings’, was sold for £5,200.

The farmhouse was demolished sometime during the C20, presumably due to road widening. A new farmhouse was subsequently erected further to the east. The surviving pre-C20 agricultural buildings include a timber-framed granary, and the timber-framed aisled barn.

The date of construction of the barn is not entirely clear, however material and structural comparisons can be drawn to other barns of the C17 and C18. It was likely built as an aisled threshing barn of six bays, with a porch on the south side and two on the north. It is apparent that a series of alterations and repairs have been undertaken to the barn throughout its history, with what appears to be a threshing machine being added to a small first floor area within the southern porch in presumably the C19, and work undertaken to the two eastern-most bays to replace the southern wall in brick and with new openings, potentially used to house a steam engine for the threshing machine. These two bays have since been subdivided internally from the rest of the barn as a separate use in the latter part of the C20 or early C21. Other works from the same period include structural repairs in blockwork and steel to the north-eastern porch, brick and corrugated metal used to repair the northern walls, a single storey extension added to the south-western corner of the barn covering the western-most three bays, some internal partitioning and decoration as part of its current use (2025), and the roof covering replaced in clay peg tiles.

Details

Aisled barn, dating from the C17 or C18.

MATERIALS: the barn primarily comprises a substantial timber frame partially resting on a rubble and brick plinth, largely clad in weatherboard with sections of the north and south walls reconstructed in brick or clad in corrugated metal. The main roof and those of the porches are covered in clay peg tiles. The lean-to is constructed of a timber-frame with weatherboard cladding partially on a brick plinth with a sheet metal roof.

PLAN: the barn comprises are six bays, referred to in this description by number from one (west) to six (east). The four western-most bays (one to four) are currently in use as a retail premises and retain for the most part the original layout of the barn. The two eastern-most bays (five and six) have been subdivided from the rest of the barn to provide a separate self-contained office use with its own entrance. The barn has a largely rectangular footprint, positioned on an east-west axis with porches to each side. Attached to the south-western corner is a single-storey timber-framed lean-to structure, accessed both externally and through an opening made in the south wall of the second bay of the barn.

EXTERIOR: the southern elevation is dominated by the large catslide gabled roof that extends the full length of the barn. A rectangular C20 single storey lean-to extension has been added across bays one to three, which appears to rest on the red brick walls of an earlier external walled enclosure. A full-height gabled porch projects from the fourth bay, and the southern wall to bays five and six has been reconstructed in the early C21 in red brick with flint infill panels with a pair of modern windows that flank a centrally positioned matching glazed door.

To each end of the barn (east and west) are full height weather-boarded gables, the west end sits on a low rubble and brick plinth. Wide timber mullioned window openings are positioned high within each gable.

The north elevation includes two full-height gabled porches to bays two and four. The catslide roof is limited to bays one and five, with bay six having a corresponding eaves level to that of the porch, and bay three slightly lower. The exterior walls of bays three and five are constructed in red brick, and bay six clad in corrugated metal sheeting. The brick wall to bay three contains a centrally positioned C20 fixed-light window. The remains of a red brick wall projects north in-line with the western end wall of the barn, probably dating from the C20, its original function is not known.

All three porches to the barn are clad in weatherboard and contain large central openings for cart access, the southern of which retains its tall timber doors and strap hinges but with the right-hand door having been altered to incorporate a smaller pedestrian door inserted within. The openings to the northern porches have been boarded over. The gable to each porch contains a centrally positioned timber mullion window opening over the doorway.

INTERIOR: the interior faces of the main walls to the barn vary in their construction and finish, with bays one to three of the southern wall constructed in red brick laid in an irregular bond, with a doorway inserted in bay two that leads through to the C20 lean-to. Both gable walls and the northern wall to bays one and six are timber-framed with plasterboard infill panels added over, obscuring the scantling. Plasterboard has also been applied to the inner face of the opening to the porch in bay two.

The interior space to bays one to four has been altered slightly to facilitate its current use, with partitioning added to create a small office area in the northern part of bay three, and for storage and staff facilities within the first-floor level within the southern porch. Bays five and six have been subdivided off as a separate use in the early C21 by means of a full height blockwork and plasterboard partition wall across the width of the barn. These bays have had a first floor added and fitted out for office use, with three main rooms on the ground floor, a large single room of the first floor and a staircase between. The rooms are finished in plasterboard around the timber frame.

The timber frame of the barn comprises tall queen-post roof trusses on substantial jowled arcade posts with mostly straight braces that support arcade plates. The queen posts are a combination of straight posts and raked posts with collars. The roof is formed by common rafters pegged together at the ridge, clasped purlins, and mostly straight wind braces. The upper rafters terminate at the arcade plate, with a lower separate staggered set with corresponding purlins supported on eaves-height braces for the lower portion of the catslide roof.

The porches comprise their own queen-post roof truss with raking struts resting on wall plates supported by the main arcade posts. The roof is formed by common rafters pegged at the ridge, clasped purlins, and wind braces. Smaller sized scantling is used in the upper sections of the gables to both the porches and the main barn.

Throughout, the timber frame appears to have been subject to alteration, adaptation, replacement, and repair. Numbered carpenter’s marks are visible on many of the trusses, but they appear not to run in a full sequence, and reused timbers have been incorporated in many places. Structural repairs had been made to the northern exterior wall to bay three where the lower set of rafters from the arcade plate have been replaced, along with the wall plate which is now in steel. Structural repairs have been undertaken to the north-eastern porch with the eastern wall constructed in blockwork and some steel structural supports added. Timber structural bracing has also been added to the southern section of bays five and six.

The roof covering appears to have been replaced, including new battens, in the late C20 to early C21, and much of the floor covered over with a planked timber floor at around the same time. Some fixed farm equipment (reputed to be a threshing machine) remains within the first-floor area of the southern porch, now embedded within the partition wall between bays four and five.

Sources

Websites
Thomas Jefferys Map of The County of Buckingham - 1770, accessed 16/01/2025 from https://digital.library.yale.edu/catalog/15309148

Other
Little Marlow Tithe Map - 1846
Little Marlow Inclosure Map - 1821
Ordnance Survey from various periods
Notice of sale by auction, The Bucks Herald, July 7 1860
Notice of withdrawal of sale, The Times, July 2 1860
Notice of sale by auction, Country Life, Sept 15 1917
Notice of sale by auction, Reading Mercury, Oct 20 1917
Record of sale, Reading Mercury, Oct 27 1917
The Barns of Four Buckinghamshire Parishes, Historic Farm Buildings Group Review, 2007

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