Monument record MDO3 - Tithe barn of Abbotsbury Abbey, Mill Farm, Church Street, Abbotsbury

Tithe barn of St Peter's Abbey built around AD 1400. The barn is constructed from ashlar, weathered to dressed stone. A thatch roof covers the 12 bays of the south west end, the remaining 11 bays have been un-roofed since the 17th century.

Additional Reference. <2>

Tithe Barn of the Monastery, 272 ft long and 31 ft wide is now in two parts but was originally one building. The north porch has a turret with a winding staircase; there is a fine western gable and a imposing line of buttresses on its south side. 15th century. <3>

Tithe Barn. The largest barn in England, 272 feet in length. E portion roofless. Rubble and ashlar with thatched roof. Elaborate entrance bay on N with angle turret. Elaborate W gable with triangular niched finial and buttresses carried up s square pinnacles with embattled tops as St Catherine's Chapel. The trussed rafter roof is probably 17th century. <4>

The Great Barn: A large buttressed barn of 23 bays, with 2 projecting entrances on the south face, and probably 2 porches, one of which survives, on the north face. Probably built circa 1400. The south west part, still in use, is now thatched; the north east part is ruined. The existing roof of the barn is probably 17th century. <5>

Description above correct. See plan and ground photograph. The south west part is now used as a farm outbuilding whilst the north east portion is in ruins. <7>

Photograph. <8>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 1 to 25 inch scale map, 1902 (Map). SDO18020.

Abbey Barn [GT] (Remains of) [NAT]

<2> Oliver, V, Undated, Miscellaneous Notes Undated (V Oliver) (Box File DCM) (Unpublished document). SWX1588.

<3> Moule, Rev W S, 1946, Abbotsbury The Church Abbey and Other Points of Interest, p16 (Monograph). SWX1589.

<4> DOE (HRR), 1951, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Dorchester Rural District 1951, p2 (Scheduling record). SWX2329.

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 6-7 (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(3) ABBOTSBURY ABBEY, remains of church, out-buildings, gatehouses, barn, pigeonhouse, etc., stood mostly to the S. of the church (1). The surviving walls are of local rubble with ashlar and dressings of the same materials. The Abbey was founded by Orc in the time of Edward the Confessor for Benedictine monks. No remains seem to have survived of any building of this period, but there are remains of late 12th-century carved decoration and of architectural features of the 13th century built into walls on the site. The N.E. outbuilding is partly of early 14th-century date and the E. outbuilding was built later in the same century. The Gatehouses are also of the 14th century and the Great Barn of c. 1400. The surviving remains of the church appear to be part of a 15th-century reconstruction of the N. aisle of the nave. The Abbey was dissolved in 1539 and the site was bought by Sir Giles Strangways in 1543, who built or adapted a house out of part of the monastic buildings. This was besieged and largely destroyed in 1644 by the Parliamentary party. Some excavations were made in 1871 and subsequently on part of the site of the church which at that time lay immediately to the S. of the parish churchyard; the churchyard has now been extended over most of the site of the nave. … The Great Barn (272 ft. by 31 ft.) stands on the N. slope of a hill on the S. side of the site about 200 yards S. of the parish church. It is faced with rough ashlar and originally had a roof of stone slates; the S.W. part, still in use, is now thatched; the N.E. part is ruined. The building (Plates 63, 64) is of twenty-three bays, with two projecting entrances on the southern and probably two porches, of which one survives, on the northern face. It was built probably c. 1400. The buttresses of the side-walls are of two stages and probably finished with square embattled pedestals above the parapet, but of these only the pedestals at the W. end survive. The moulded parapet has mostly gone but the mouldings are continued across the W. gable-end and there is a series of water-spouts. Alternate bays of the S. wall have narrow loop-lights and there are two loop-lights in each end wall. The projecting entrances on the S. side had formerly four-centred and chamfered openings but the eastern has been blocked and the western partly destroyed and altered. The N. face had presumably two porches and three intermediate doorways, but the wall of the sixth to the eleventh bay has been destroyed; the middle doorway retains its four-centred head but the other two have been blocked and altered; the surviving porch has diagonal buttresses and an outer archway with jambs and four-centred arch of two chamfered orders; above it the parapet-mouldings are carried across and in the gable is a window with a two-centred head and label but lacking its mullion; the gable has a gable-cross. In the W. wall is a doorway of which one jamb is original. The porch had a stone vault of which the chamfered wall-ribs, springers and moulded corbels remain; the upper floor was approached by a turret-staircase in the eastern angle. The W. gable-end of the barn has four small loop-lights above the parapet-moulding and the central buttress is carried up and finished with a triangular pinnacle with a shallow trefoil-headed niche in each face. The eastern gable has been destroyed. The existing roof of the western part of the barn is probably of the 17th century and is of trussed-rafter type with small hammer-beams at the plate-level; the roof of the upper storey of the porch is of trussed-rafter type with curved braces. Within a modern outbuilding, N. of the barn, is a stretch of walling with a deep plinth, probably mediæval…. ‘

<6> Farrar, R A H, 1952, Archaeological Fieldwork in Dorset in 1952. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 83 (Article in serial). SWX1587.

<7> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 23-MAR-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<8> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F2 JR 15-APR-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<9> DOE (HRR), 20 May 1985, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: District of West Dorset amendment 1985 (Scheduling record). SWX2354.

<10> DCMS, 1997, Scheduled Monument Notification English Heritage Schedule Entry 16/05/1997 (Scheduling record). SWX1594.

<11> Mcmahon P, 1997, An Archaeological Watching Brief at the Tithe Barn / Mill Farm, Abbotsbury, Dorset. (Unpublished document). SWX8299.

<12> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BB44/00934 (Index). SDO14738.

A view of Abbotsbury Abbey Tithe Barn, from the south-west

<13> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BB44/00935 (Index). SDO14738.

A view of Abbotsbury Abbey Tithe Barn, from the south-east

<14> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BB44/00936 (Index). SDO14738.

A view of the entrance porch to Abbotsbury Abbey Tithe Barn, from the north

<15> Historic England, Historic England Archive, OP24460 (Index). SDO14738.

A view of the entrance porch to Abbotsbury Abbey Tithe Barn, from the north

<16> Historic England, Historic England Archive, OP24461 (Index). SDO14738.

A view of Abbotsbury Abbey Tithe Barn, from the south-west

<17> Historic England, Historic England Archive, OP24462 (Index). SDO14738.

A view of Abbotsbury Abbey Tithe Barn, from the south-east

<18> Historic England, Historic England Archive, OP24464 (Index). SDO14738.

A view of Abbotsbury Abbey Tithe Barn, from the south-east. This print was received by the National Buildings Record in February 1941.

<19> Historic England, Historic England Archive, OP24465 (Index). SDO14738.

A view of Abbotsbury Abbey Tithe Barn, from the south-west. This print was received by the National Buildings Record in February 1941.

<20> Historic England, Historic England Archive, OP24466 (Index). SDO14738.

A view of the entrance porch to Abbotsbury Abbey Tithe Barn, from the north. This print was received by the National Buildings Record in February 1941.

<21> Historic England, Historic England Archive, OP10372 (Index). SDO14738.

The tithe barn was part of the Benedictine monastery complex founded in Abbotsbury in 1044. Nearly 80 meters in length, its great size is an indicator of the wealth of the abbey prior to its dissolution in 1539.

<22> Historic England, Historic England Archive, OP10373 (Index). SDO14738.

The Benedictine monastery complex at Abbotsbury was founded in 1044. The huge tithe barn lay to the south of the site. St. Catherine's Chapel was built by the monks on a hilltop to the south-east of the site as a pilgrimage chapel.

<23> Heaton, M, 2006, Abbey Barn, Abbotsbury, Dorset. Roof Repairs 2005-2006: Archaeological Report (Unpublished document). SDO15152.

<24> National Record of the Historic Environment, 450455 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 15 2024 6:34AM