Our third barn

We haven’t really talked about our third barn much so far – the main reason being that it’s almost completely derelict. The roof was taken off many years ago, and there are really only three external walls remaining. The barn is still split into two rooms, one with a long trough and bars at each end – presumably to chain animals up to. On one side of the barn, the fig tree has grown over the edge of the wall, and on the adjoining side, the cultivated blackberry plant is doing the same – taking over.  

The barn faces East and so catches the sun in the morning – which means we often see huge butterflies basking in the heat on the wall. And looking through from the orchard, the sunrise through the derelict windows can look quite spectacular. 

As the building faces both North and East, it has beautiful views up the valley to Yarcombe, and then  across the Yarty valley. Because of this, our original aspiration was to turn this into an upside-down house with an open-plan living area and making the most of the views; however conversations with our architect and planning consultant made it clear that wouldn’t be a viable use for the building. As there’s no historical importance of the building (built in the 60s), the council planning department did suggest we should knock it down and let it rewild – but there’s not much storage otherwise across the site, and so we’ve decided to turn it into a multi-purpose building. There’ll be much-needed garden storage to avoid the need for extra sheds in future, a laundrette, and then on the first floor, either additional storage or a large room that can be used for groups or as a games room (we’re not sure yet). The large open space on the first floor will include large windows, taking advantage of the stunning views to both the North and the East. 

The other exciting thing about the third barn is that it’ll have a dedicated bat loft for our larger species (the other one will be at the end of the shippon). We love to sit out in the evening and watch the bats swoop past your head, and so we’re really pleased to be able to support them living on the site. 

Although this will, in effect, be a new building, it’ll be faced with reclaimed stone and designed to look like a former agricultural building, blending in with the neighbouring barns. We can’t wait to improve this part of our site!