Barn History
From the initial viewings that inspired Mike and Dawn to invest in Prospect Barn, the
age of the building was not considered. They were aware that the building was fairly old
as the majority of the structure is built in hand made brick, but just how old was
unknown.
Dawn started her research at Hull Central library where she found plans of the area in
1950, 1890 and 1805. The 1805 plan was the original Parliamentary enclosure proposal for
Withernwick (actually carried out in 1809) which showed clearly the main barn structure.
This proved the building to be at least 195 years old.
Following on from that Dawn also found out about a brick taxation that was introduce in
1784, which resulted in an increased brick size, not the small bricks found at the barn,
again proving clues that the barn could be at least 216 years old.
Beyond this date a brick expert and old friend was consulted who provided pointers, text
books and what to look for. He also indicated that the barn could have been built anything
between 1660 and 1784. This was deduced from the brick sizes predominant at the barn. The
likely hood is that the barn will have been built in the mid eighteenth century, although
the research continues.
Interesting features have been found as a result of reclaiming materials from the barn.
Bricks with worm casts, one with a hand print and one with an animal print, possibly a
small dog.
A small area of cobbled floor was also discovered, unfortunately this had to be lifted due
to the proposed finished floor levels. Although as with all materials removed from the
building they will gain a new lease of life as the central barn feature of the chimney
stack, based on St Albans Church of Withernwick.
General observations taken from "Traditional Farm Buildings of Britain" R W
Brunskill, Gollancz 1987 London and "Illustrated Handbook of Vernacular
Architecture" R W Brunskill.
Further research resulted in the reading of the above books. From the reading it appears
that Prospect Barn was originally a Granary above a cart shed. Granaries were used to
store grain crops in a dry place. They became a farm necessity when yields increased
during the mid eighteenth century, as a result it became unfeasible to store the grain
within the farmhouse. The building was required to be secure, dry and well ventilated and
protected from vermin. One method of achieving this was to store the grain in a raised
area ideally on the first floor. The most common style was to place the granary above a
cart shed. The typical arrangement of this would to have two, three or more open fronted
cart shed bays. In the case of Prospect Barn there is evidence of four bays. The granary
floor would be fully enclosed above these bays. The granary would be plastered or lined
with match boarding, again evidence of both plastering and matchbording is found on the
first floor of Prospect Barn. Brunskills work goes on to describe close-boarded flooring
carried on joists sitting on heavy beams dividing the cart shed, these beams again being
present at Prospect Barn. The beams would then be carried on piers of brick, stone or on
columns of Iron or wood. At the barn the beams are carried on brick piers but these are
fairly modern. I was informed that a gentleman still living in the village remembers the
piers being replaced in approximately 1910, unfortunately I still do not know what
supported the beams before this date. The granary would have been accessed via a staircase
either externally or internally. I am still looking for evidence of the stair, but
considering the age of the original building I would not be surprised if the adjoining
Victorian single storey building is concealing the evidence of and external stair. One of
the photos within this web site does show some evidence of a former high level opening.
One issue that I am having difficulty in researching is what was the original roof
covering? At either end of the original granary building the gable ends are tumbled in, a
common style for our region, adopted from the Netherlands in the seventeenth century. The
gable end creates a small parapet large enough to conceal a thatched roof. Observing the
work of Brunskill in the "Illustrated Handbook of Vernacular Architecture" the
latest thatches in the region of Easy Yorkshire was circa 1750. This also coincides with
the approximate dates of the bricks, although recent research has suggested that bricks
similar to those found at Prospect Barn were possibly fired during the 1600's. Although
thatch is feasible it is more realistic that the roof was originally covered in pan-tiles,
Brunskillss work shows that there was an overlap in the transition of using pan-tiles and
thatch for a roof covering. Following on with the theme of pantiles, when the main barn
roof was removed, some old tiles were discovered, these tiles had small lugs, very few had
nail holes and they had a curve to the bottom of the tile. The majority of the tiles
removed had larger lugs with a "H" imprinted on the face side. Could it be
possible that the "H" represented Hornsea or Holderness, the area in which they
may have been made. In addition to the "H" imprints also found were tiles with
"M" and a few with "W" imprinted. These were probably produced at a
later date to the "H" tiles and were used to carry out repairs on the roof. It
would be particularly interesting to find out if the "W" stood for Withernwick
(in the late nineteenth century Withernwick had its own brick and tile yard, actually
quarrying the clay adjacent to the barn itself), and the "M" Mappleton.
Watching Brief
Humber Archaeology partnership carried out the watching brief in May as a result of the
laying of the services. Surprisingly little was found except for a large piece of stone
being used as a culvert for an old drain. The Stone was worked and from observation of the
section it appears that it could have been part of the original St Albans church prior to
its re-build or from an older building such as a monastery or important building.
World War II
During WWII Prospect barn was used to house troops, and the adjoining Prospect House was
the residence for the Officers. Some evidence of the barns former use was found drawn in
boot polish on the plaster of the first floor walls. There were sketches of Swastikas, a
cartoon drawing of Hitler and a picture of a horse, these can be seen below.
I hope to find out more details in the future.