The great barn at Harmondworth, 58 metres long and 11.4 metres wide, is one of the largest ever built in the British Isles, and the largest intact medieval timber-framed barn in England. It was built between 1426 and 1427 on land belonging to Winchester College, a great educational foundation, and was used to store wheat, barley and oats produced on the estate. The barn’s timber frame, incorporating a number of unusual carpentry features, has survived almost unaltered from the original construction, though it remained in agricultural use until the 1970s. The poet and conservationist, Sir John Betjeman (1906-84) famously likened the barn to a cathedral.
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