England
England's largest intact medieval timber-framed barn
The great barn at Harmondsworth, west of London near Heathrow Airport, 58 meters long and 11.4 meters 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, and it remained in agricultural use until the 1970s. The poet and conservationist, Sir John Betjeman (1906-84) famously likened the barn to a cathedral.
