Miss Jackson's Barn, Borrans, Ambleside, Cumbria - Barns on Waymarking.com

Standing in the same field as the Roman Fort, Galava, this is a renovated barn, still being used as a store. It even has electricity, now. Typical layout with upper floor undivided to store hay and fodder, with lowest level for the animals. The individual stalls and communal stalls for the animals have a shared entrance, with divisions made inside. The animal area sometimes called a shippen. To cart the loads to upper floor there is a wide gently sloping ramp, curling round from north end.

High on the front is the inscription, reading;
Miss J.Jackson 1831

This field has public access through the National trust, so you can walk right up to the barn and peer through the openings.

Construction
The masonry walls are constructed in a manner unique to the Lake Counties, and can be seen in most of the buildings of the Lake District. These slate stone walls are built in three sections, an inner skin, an outer skin and an intermediate hearting filled with small stones. Every two or three feet a course of through stones was laid to bind the two skins together. The
stones were laid ti1ted downwards towards the exterior skin so that moisture would percolate through the hearting and be directed to the outside on the through stones.
Originally, this watershot method was built dry, but today the stones are bedded in mortar two or three inches from the face.

Early roofing was thatch which began to be replaced by sandstone flags in the early eighteenth century. These random size pieces of stone are immensely heavy and require massive roof trusses. Lake District slate and the more regular Welsh slate are the most common roofing materials today.

The barn sits on the edge of the glacial deposits parallel to the slope with a lane around the north gable end leading to the centre double doors of the west long wall. This barn is a rectangular structure, 65 feet by 30 feet with a slate gable roof and uncoursed slate walls. The 24 inch walls are tied together with large sandstone quoins, some 4 feet long and 6-8 inches thick. Window and door lintels are also sandstone but only to a depth of 6 inches, behind them are hewn timbers providing the structural strength. The upper level interior is inaccessible but probably is open with king post trusses. The upper level is ventilated with mu1tiple vertical slits and curious shaped holes near the plate level which look like they may have held scaffolding. There is a canopy roof over the centre double doors and a pent roof over the stable doors and windows on the lower level. The winnowing door is a domestic size and situated opposite the double doors on the east long wall.
The lower level has been cleared out except for several posts and a large slate slab which once served as the side of a stall. There are two stone partition walls creating a chamber in each gable end. There was apparently a centre longitudinal aisle as indicated by post mortises in the bridging girders. These support posts were also used as stall posts. The floor is cobble stone.
Access is through two split (dutch) doors in the east long wall, a door in the south gable end and a wide, double door wagon entrance on the north side of the west face. Another chamber was built underneath the bank on the south end of the west face. Drip ledges of protruding slate are over each door and window.

Links
Bank Barns in Mill Creek Hundred Delaware.pdf (visit link)

Construction: Stone Is this a 'working' barn?: Equipment Shed (used to store farm implements) Distinctive Features: Other (describe below) Rating - Please Rate this Barn: Other: Not listed Other Distinctive Features: Not listed

Visit Instructions:

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Date Logged Log User Rating   09/02/2010 bill&ben visited it