16th century barn. pair half crucks & Queen post trusses.
(2) C16th cruck-framed barn with box-framed ends, probably originally having four bays. Modified and extended in the C19th with stone walls replacing two-tier framing with large panels. Tree-ring dated by A. Moir; note forthcoming in Vernacular Architecture, vol. 36. (Richard Suggett/RCAHMW/July 2005)

Barn range situated to the east of the farmhouse and above barn, comprising a mix of one and two storey buildings. Date of construction of these barns is believed to be c. 1850. The barns are arranged in a U-shape, forming a courtyard with the house, and are all internally linked. The barns are construted variously of limestone and red brick, with roofing being a mixture of slate, corrugated steel sheets and acrylic sheets.

MERTYN ABBOT BARN

Description and development
Mertyn Abbot Barn is a substantial agricultural range of five bays detached from but flanking Mertyn Abbot farmhouse. In its present form, the range is part of the later C19th reorganisation of the farmstead at Mertyn Abbot into a planned courtyard complex described as a 'capital yard' in the Downing Estate sale catalogues (NLW, Flintshire Sale Catalogue 81 (1912) and 72 (1920). Most of the farmbuildings date from the later C19th but the barn incorporates part of an earlier range.

The barn has three main phases:

I. A mid-C16th timber-framed barn. The present stone-built range incorporates part of an earlier timber-framed barn range. There are three C16th trusses, including two cruck-trusses (T2, T3) which probably originally flanked the threshing floor of a three- or four-bay barn. The original box-framed end truss (T1) has survived. Part of the original wallplate seems to have survived in places and has mortices for the studs of timber-framed walls. This range has been tree-ring dated and shown to date from the second half of the C16th with one cruck having a precise felling date of Spring 1557 (reported in Vernacular Architecture 36 (2005), p. 77).

II C17th rebuilding. In the later C17th the barn was enlarged and rebuilt with stone walls replacing the original timber frame. An extra bay was added to the E. end and the framing below the tie-beam of the old end truss removed. At the upper end T3 was adjusted and T4 is new or a replacement. The walls were of coursed rubble with coping stones laid on the gable ends..

III C19th replanning. In the later C19th the range was divided by a cross wall. This was part of the replanning of the whole farmstead. The barn was reduced to three bays with a central threshing floor. The contraction of the barn may be related to the construction of an adjacent brick-walled stackyard. Within the upper part of the range steps were constructed to a new granary set over a stable (this was latterly a cowhouse/loose box).

There are several trusses.

Truss I. A box-framed truss. Now within the barn, this was originally an end truss with the fair face set outwards. There was framing above the tie-beam. The truss originally had a loading doorway in the gable above the tie-beam but was otherwise infilled. There are mortices for lost up-braces from the posts to the tie-beam.

Truss 2. Cruck-truss. A full cruck-truss with high, lap-jointed collar. The cruck blades have a double-pegged lap-joint for a spur or tie-beam. The truss has a butted apex and two pairs of purlins.

Truss 3: A cruck-truss with truncated blades with a stubby king-post set on the collar to carry the ridge. The cruck-truss has been adjusted and repaired but the king-post is an early, regional feature. This truss is now only partly visible from the barn floor and has been incorporated within the C19th arrangements at the upper end of the barn.

Truss 4. An open tie-beam truss with raking struts. The chisel assembly marks suggest a C17th/C18th date.

Significance.
Mertyn Abbot barn is in origin more or less contemporary with the house. It is one of several surviving securely-dated mid-C16th cruck-framed barns associated with gentry houses. However it should be appreciated that the mid C16th barn is fragmentary. The timber barn was rebuilt in stone in the C17th/C18th and replanned in the C19th. In its present form the barn is essentially a C19th estate range but incorporating trusses from the earlier phases.

Richard Suggett,
RCAHMW/2008