Summary
An C18 threshing barn, converted for use as a malthouse in the C19, with attached wagon shed and barn.
Reasons for Designation
The C18 threshing barn at Longford Farm, converted for use as a malthouse in the C19, with attached wagon shed and barn, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest and survival: the building is a good example of an C18 threshing barn, with much surviving historic fabric and character;
* Adaptation: the building's adaptation to a malthouse in the C19 has given additional interest, with features surviving from this use which allow an understanding of the malting process;
* Group value: it has strong group value with other listed buildings at Longford Farm.
History
The barn at Longford Farm dates from the C18 and was originally constructed as a threshing barn, with large central doors and a floor for the threshing of corn, and areas for the storage of threshed straw and unthreshed sheaves.
During the C19, the barn was converted for use as a malthouse for the malting of barley. Malting often took place on farms for the brewing of beer for domestic use and local supply. At this time, the interior of the barn was subdivided, with floor structures inserted and alterations carried out to facilitate the malting process. Original ventilation openings were blocked and new openings created to control ventilation, light and access, and an extension was added to house the kiln. Different areas of the barn were laid out for the various stages in the process of malting, and these can be understood in what survives in the barn today.
Malting is understood to have ceased at Longford Farm by 1950, since when the barn appears to have largely been used for storage. It was re-roofed in the 1970s.
Details
An C18 threshing barn, converted for use as a malthouse in the C19, with attached wagon shed and barn.
MATERIALS: The barn is constructed of rubble limestone under a roof that is partially stone slate and partially C20 concrete tiles. The interior structure is of timber; consisting largely of oak, elm and pine.
PLAN: The buildings are orientated roughly E-W, and stand to the N of Longford House.
EXTERIOR: The barn faces the courtyard to the rear of Longford House. There is a large porch at its centre, with the former opening for the threshing doors blocked, and a small window above a timber lintel. To the left is a lean-to extension with blocked openings and a dog-hole, to the right an infil with door between the porch and the later kiln house extension, which has a wide opening on its E face. The high roof of the main barn rises above, with coped gables at each end, that to the W with a decorative finial. At the E end of the barn is an adjoining wing with two door openings and a small quatrefoil owl opening. To the W, a wagon shed which is open at the end and has a partially hipped roof.
To the rear, the barn is built into the hillside, and its long elevation has a number of ventilation holes which have been blocked. The original winnowing opening is also blocked, leaving a small window below. There are two other window openings and a door which has stairs leading up to it, giving access to the upper levels of the barn.
INTERIOR: The original threshing barn is of five bays, and the interior of the barn had floor levels inserted in the C19, when the building was converted for use as a malthouse. The lower ground floor is a single open space with a number of columns supporting the floor above, including two in cast iron. The original walls of the threshing barn have been thickened in places to support the floor structure above. There is an opening at the W end for the hoist above. The former porch has a small room at ground floor level, and the kiln house to the E, where the furnace would have been located, is roofless, with chutes surviving in the wall above for transferring barley from the upper areas.
The middle floor of the barn retains a number of bins for the storage of malt and barley. Some are marked out by surviving beams on the floor; in other areas the walls of the storage bins survive and have evidence of lath and plaster internal faces. At the W end is the hoist which has a protective timber housing. At the E end, a timber stair gives access to the upper floor which is a single, large space for use as a growing floor. The floor has a lime ash covering, which is extended to walls around the edges to avoid the loss of grain in the eaves of the roof. At the W end the timber and iron wheel of the hoist survives. The original roof trusses survive with some later purlins probably of the C19; the majority of the common rafters were replaced in the 1970s.
In the adjoining E wing, there is a partially surviving cobbled and flagged floor in one storage room with a loft above, and an historic roof structure, with an owl box at one end.
