Bank barn

[2] Bank barns are especially common in the upland areas of Britain, in Northumberland and Cumbria in northern England and in Devon in the southwest.

The bank barn at Townend Farm, Troutbeck in former Cumberland, was built for the prominent Browne family in 1666.

They usually have a central threshing area with hay or corn (cereal) storage bays on either side on the upper floor; and byres, stables, cartshed, or other rooms below.

A common arrangement had an open-fronted single bay cartshed below the threshing floor, with stables on one side and a cow-house on the other.

The entrances to these lower floor rooms were protected from above in many cases by a continuous canopy, or pentise carried on timber or stone beams cantilevered from the main wall.

In the 1660s, Sir Daniel Fleming of Rydal Hall in the Lake District housed 44 cattle in his 74 feet (23 m) long bank barn at Low Park.

In other bank barns in Cumbria, the side walls entrances gave access to a cow-house, stable, and cartshed; some 19th-century examples have four-horse stables, root houses (for storage of root crops for fodder), and feeding and dung passages for the cows.

In many other bank barns, the tie-ups were on the upper-ground level, and below the stables, a basement usually acted as a manure collection area.

The basement space could be utilized for animals while the area above, easily accessed by wagon because of the bank, could be used for feed and grain storage.