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Origin & Uses of the Great Green Barn
The earliest parts of the Great Green Barn were built in the 14th century, with additions in 17th to enlarge the space for greater use. The space will have been used for many uses, primarily as a threshing barn. The two large door openings are typical of a threshing barn, allowing a fully laden horse-drawn cart, with harvested grain crops from the surrounding fields coming in the tallest doors, and the cart going out the lower doors with the spent chaff. The threshing would happen with flails, two wooden rods or bats joined by tough twine or leather being used to beat the stalks by hand to release the grains (seeds) which were then collected, with the spent stalks leaving the barn for fodder or other uses. This separation of the grain from the stalks is where we get the saying 'separating the wheat from the chaff', meaning separating the good grains for food from the spent stalks, which were known as chaff. The Great Green Barn is vaulted, and a loft area would have stored the grain. |
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Restoration of the Great Green Barn
The restoration of the Great Green Barn began in 2020.
The Great Green Barn has been sustainably and sympathetically restored using master carpenters and heritage craftsmen, and traditional heritage crafting techniques. Where a natural and sustainable solution was available, it has been used, and where it was not available, a workaround that was sustainable has been found 99% of the time.
Three examples of the barn's sustainable restoration are:
Whilst there is modern underfloor heating throughout, virtually every other aspect of restoration has been done without plastic, and without other environmentally damaging resources, even the floors have been laid using recycled pavers.
With heating and cooling supplied by an air source heat pump, and a solar array supplying much of the electricity, every single aspect of restoring the Great Green Barn has been questioned as to how the solution can be both sustainable and environmental.
The restoration of the Great Green Barn began in 2020.
The Great Green Barn has been sustainably and sympathetically restored using master carpenters and heritage craftsmen, and traditional heritage crafting techniques. Where a natural and sustainable solution was available, it has been used, and where it was not available, a workaround that was sustainable has been found 99% of the time.
Three examples of the barn's sustainable restoration are:
- Concrete is environmentally damaging, so no concrete has been used in the restoration. Instead traditional limecrete has been used throughout for foundations, floors and wall and ceiling plaster;
- Modern underfloor insulation again is environmentally damaging, so the solution was to use foam glass, a high quality insulation hardcore made from 99% recycled glass; and
- Re-use of traditional roofing tiles, bricks and pavers have been used, many from nearby old buildings going through their own non-sustainable refurbishment.
Whilst there is modern underfloor heating throughout, virtually every other aspect of restoration has been done without plastic, and without other environmentally damaging resources, even the floors have been laid using recycled pavers.
With heating and cooling supplied by an air source heat pump, and a solar array supplying much of the electricity, every single aspect of restoring the Great Green Barn has been questioned as to how the solution can be both sustainable and environmental.
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