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Rudchester Barn

July 2020

We believe that the farm buildings at Rudcheser date from the 18th century, with much of the stone coming from the Roman fort which was well preserved until the 1720s. It was certainly present on the 1841 OS map. The barn was connected by upstairs and downstairs doors to Stable Cottage and the Granary to the North - the openings can been seen in our photographs but are now blocked off.

Rudchester Barn Early 20th Century

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Early 20th Century
This aerial photograph, which we think is from the early 20th Century, you can see that the Barn has no functional door and the windows are unpainted. More interestingly, there is a large greenhouse at the front and an attached Dutch barn at the back.

Rudchester Barn from the air

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Early 20th Century
This shows the Barn from a different angle - at this point there wre clearly more trees at the back, partly obscuring the attached Dutch Barn.

The Barn, 15 May 2020

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15 May 2020
This is the current view from the front, for comparison.

The barn was sold with Rudchester Manor in 2001. At that stage it was in a rather sorry state, but useful for stroing wood and bikes. We believe it was used for storing and possibly grinding grain as there was machinery and a hole in the floor. It has also been used for water storage for the farm as there were large metal tanks on the first floor.

Front view 2009

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Front view 2009
This is the barn in 2009, just before the start of building work to renovate it.

Back View 2009

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Back view 2009
This shows the Barn from the back in 2009. The main wall is in a poor state of repair, having been cobbled together to fill in old threshing doors which lead to the attached Dutch Barn.

Wide-angle back view 2000

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Wide-angle back view 2009
This shows Stable cottage to the right (South) of the picture, the Granary to the left (North) and some wasteland (the "prarie") which the council workers used to store rubbish, in the foreground.

On the inside, the Barn was also a little delapidated...

Downstairs facing South

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Downstairs facing South
You can see the pig pens and the grinding machine to the right of the photograph.

Grinding machine

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Grinding Machine
This was fed through a wooden funnel from upstairs in the barn and may have been used in the preparation of animal feed.

Ground Floor looking North

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Downstairs looking North 2007
You can see the doorway into the Granary to the right of the picture.

Rudchester Barn First floor looking North

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Upstairs looking North 2007
This shows the first floor of the barn with a large water tank on the wall between the Barn and the Granary, with 2 other tanks on the floor. You can just see, on the whitewashed wall at the top of the stairs, cumulative numbers from 1939 to 1949.

Rudchester Water(?) or Electricity(?) 1939-1949

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Rudchester Water(?) or Electricity(?) 1939-1949
This seems to be a cumulative total starting at 0 on 26/07/1939 and reaching 304,990 on 29/05/1949. A mean of 85 a day but varies from 53 to 321...

Rudchester Barn First floor looking South

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Upstairs looking South 2007
You can see the grain "funnel" (wrong way up) over the hole down to the grinding machinery.

It took 2 years to get planning permission, but in January 2009, we started building work on the Barn to renovate it as a annexe to Rudchester Manor.

New window at the Front

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New window at the Front
We added a window at the front of the Barn to let more light in upstairs.

New window at the back

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New window at the back
The builders took out the back wall to reinstate the threshing doors as a large window.

Inside walls

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Inside walls
Inside, there is a minimum or partition walling with the first floor open to the rafters.

The barn now...

Front 2020

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The front
We laid some stepping stones up to the Barn. You can see the finished new window upstaris and the chimney for the wood-burning stove.

The back of the Barn now

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The back
Obviously the appropriate place for a dragonfly kite...

Inside walls

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Inside walls

A similar view to the one above, just with more toys.

The barn is now relatively open plan...