Hay barn to be re-erected this winter

The hay barn on its original site at Ockley Court Farm, from the north west.

Cross section through the Ockley hay barn

The hay barn from Ockley, Surrey in store at the Museum since 1985, is due to be re-erected on the site over the winter. Hay barns are rare in our region. In 1835 J C Loudon wrote about them as follows:

The hay-barn is commonly constructed of timber, and sometimes is open on the south or east, or even on all sides. … They are found to be extremely useful and convenient during a catching and unsettled hay-harvest, and also at other seasons of the year. In wet and windy weather, they afford an opportunity of cutting, weighing and binding hay; none of which operations could, at such a time, be performed out of doors. Most farmers agree that hay may be put together earlier, even by a day, in a barn, than it would be safe to do in a stack. … Many persons, on the other hand, think hay is more apt to heat in a barn than in the open air; and that they present no advantages which may not be obtained by the canvas stack-cover. If they do not possess considerable advantages, then the loss must be great, as the erection of such barns is a heavy expense.

In 1985 I became aware of two examples of hay barns. The first was a very large one at Stag Park Farm, north of Petworth, on the farmstead that was created from scratch by the 3rd Earl Egremont in 1782. The accounts for the carpenters’ work survive and show that the hay barn took 51 man-days to frame up and erect – and that one of the carpenters, Thomas Philps, was allowed two weeks’ paid sick leave for “an accident he received from a fall when about the hay barn”! This was a huge building, 100ft long by 20ft wide and 20ft high to the eaves. It was later enclosed and underpinned for use as an engine house to serve the farm, but it is clear that in its original form it had open sides consisting of 10 open bays of 10ft each, but with a 5ft ‘skirt’ of boarding under the eaves.

The second hay barn was on Court Farm, Ockley, and it was kindly offered to the Museum by the owner Michael Calvert. The dismantling took place in October 1985, and the timbers have been in storage ever since. This was a much smaller affair, nearly square (20ft 6in by 22ft 8in on plan, and about 14ft high), but also open sided, and with a skirt of boarding below the eaves on two sides. It is of high quality timber-frame construction, and through dendrochronology we have found that its date of construction is 1804.

Having acquired the building we then faced the problem of siting it, and although suggestions were made that it might be re-erected to form a farmstead group with Court Barn, former Museum Director Chris Zeuner and I were never quite convinced that was the right approach. But more recently we have been considering ways of developing the interpretation of historic agriculture at the Museum, and we looked for a location nearer to the field strips. The site we have chosen is at the top (southern) edge of Gonville field, close to the mature trees that surround Gonville Cottage. This is adjacent to, but outside, the Museum’s main boundary, and has not in the past been considered for exhibit development, so we have agreed with the Edward James Foundation and Chichester District Council to establish a temporary site, to be re-examined within five years in relation to other development in the same area.

Planning permission has been received, foundations dug, and timbers analysed and repaired, so we expect the building to be re-erected before the end of the year. It will then be used to store and display our extremely valuable and recently restored threshing drum, dating from the 1860s, and our hay elevator, with the ‘Best’ living van standing adjacent, thus showing the main components of a ‘threshing train’. See article on The Threshing Train

Richard Harris
Museum Director

Landscape Conservation Management Plan under way

As reported in the Spring magazine, the Museum has joined forces with the Edward James Foundation (EJF) to commission a Landscape Conservation Management Plan for West Dean Park. English Heritage has agreed to grant aid 50% of the cost, and following a competitive tendering process Nicholas Pearson Associates has been appointed as consultants to carry out research and prepare the plan.

Master plan for the layout of the Museum produced in 1978 by
the Museum’s Hon Architect, John Warren.

Southwater Smithy is put on the map

The Southwater Smithy, and, right, the finished totem pole after the blacksmiths’ ‘forge-in’.

The Museum’s Forge or Blacksmith’s Shop – the Southwater Smithy – is an example of a building which would once have been a familiar sight in every village in England. Today cottages have been converted from the structures in many places, often evident by their name ‘The Old Forge’.

The Museum’s forge has been in use regularly by practising blacksmiths for demonstrations for visitors and for the forging of iron items to be used in the restoration of the exhibit buildings and other projects around the site.

A notable smith, who became much associated with the building, was the late Geoff Busbridge, who died in 2005 and was keen to ensure its use continued in the future. Volunteer blacksmith Robert Smith is a member of BABA (British Artist Blacksmiths Association) and he suggested to the Museum the staging of a ‘forge-in’, which took place last October during The Fire Event.

A forge-in involves large numbers of blacksmiths arriving with their own hearths and tools, working together as a team to produce a piece representing the art of the smith. Working with Nigel Barnett, BABA chairman, the smiths decided to make something achievable over two days in memory of Geoff and suitable for the Museum. A ‘totem pole’ was conceived and constructed, and set up outside the Smithy: it has proved popular with visitors, who find it very tactile and enjoy being photographed with it.

BABA loved the Museum and was keen to visit again. And Robert Smith was asked to run a children’s activity at the next BABA annual meeting to be held at Blists Hill Victorian Town, Ironbridge in July this year, based on the Wonderful Wednesdays activities at the Museum, which include making horse shoes with the children.

“The Blists Hill event was a resounding success,” says Robert. “The children’s activity (making hooks this time) was the talk of Ironbridge, and the Weald & Downland Museum received a great deal of publicity.”

The Museum’s head of interpretation, Hannah Miller, supported the volunteer team at Ironbridge (which included volunteer smith Nick Murray), and BABA has decided to hold its next annual meeting at the Museum on 1-3 August, 2008. It will include a forge-in and blacksmithing-related activities. In addition, an exhibition of contemporary blacksmiths work in the Downland Gridshell will run from 23 July-3 August.

“We have put the Southwater Smithy on the map and BABA’s annual meeting at the Weald & Downland Museum will be at an international level,” says Robert. “I feel we have fulfilled Geoff’s final wishes.”

The Southwater Smithy was given to the Museum in 1970 by the son of the last practising smith to work in it. Built in about 1850, its construction, like most forges, is rough and simple, using materials easily to hand, including timber from the sawmill across the road and tiles and bricks from the brickyard a couple of hundred yards away. Offcuts were used to clad the exterior and the tiles are ‘seconds’. Smithing was an essential craft in the economy of the smallest community, second in importance only to agriculture. Manuscript drawings of the 12th century show that there had been very little change, in the structure itself or the tools used, up to the 20th century.

Threshing train display for Ockley hay barn

The threshing train was a common site in pre-war England, and this winter we are setting up a display showing its main components – the threshing machine, the living van and the elevator.

During the summer, Paul Pinnington and Ben Headon completed the conservation and restoration of the Museum’s threshing machine following a successful application to the PRISM (Preservation of Industrial & Scientific Material) Fund.

Research showed that it was built in 1862, making it a very early surviving example of agricultural equipment. Even more impressive was the fact that the internal mechanism was fully operational, if a little reluctant at first to turn over.

Its original wheels had long since been replaced with pneumatic tyres, so a set of new wheels of appropriate design was produced for the machine by Douglas Andrews of Heathfield in East Sussex which has greatly improved the overall appearance of the machine.

The second part of the threshing train is the contractors’ living van, in which the threshing gang would have been based and kept their equipment (and refreshments). This vehicle is similar in appearance to a wheeled shepherd’s hut and has been repaired, ready for display next to the threshing machine. Work has involved some minor repairs to the vehicle structure and replacement of most of the external corrugated iron cladding to make it weathertight. Again the original wheels had been replaced by pneumatic tyres, so a spare set of cast iron wheels which originally belonged to a shepherd’s hut has been installed; however, these wheels are not exactly the correct size, so a more appropriate set of cast iron wheels is being sought.

The final part of the threshing train is the elevator, of which the Museum is lucky to have two very similar examples. We will be conserving one of them during the winter months ready for a final display of all pieces of machinery early in the new year.

These three elements of the threshing train will be displayed and housed in the historic hay barn from Ockley. The re-erection will be carried out during the autumn by a team headed by Guy Viney.

The Museum’s 1862 Marshalls of Gainsborough threshing drum (centre), drawn by a visiting steam engine which is also towing a living van, at the Museum’s Autumn Countryside Show in October

Collections update

Keepers Hook

This very interesting and beautifully made but slightly grizzly item (right) was donated by Mike Bulpett from Chidham. He acquired it from a local gamekeeper who had made it by hand from leather and hooks to advertise the effectiveness of his pest control. When employed by a landowner to rid his property of vermin, he would strap the hook to a fencepost and hang from it whatever he had managed to trap – rats, moles, crows and the like. We have it displayed in the Gridshell Store – without these additions.

Horse Shoes

A nationally significant collection of c.500 horse shoes was very generously given to the Museum by Ken Smith. He collected them over the last 25 years of his life. They range in date from 11th or 12th century to the present day and although many of them originate from slightly outside our geographical collecting area the quality, range and provenance of the shoes is superb. Accessioning this massive collection and recording all their details is a very daunting task, but as Ken is due to retire in about two years’ time he has kindly offered to return to the Museum to catalogue the collection for us.

Julian Bell

Collections update - Tony White’s collection

Very sadly, earlier this year Tony died following a long illness. He was well aware this was going to happen and with typical thoroughness prepared his affairs meticulously and well in advance, also including the Museum in his thoughts.

As a local farmer and keen horseman, he had built up his own collection of harness and horse-drawn equipment and from time to time donated items to the Museum. In his final days he further demonstrated his generosity with a donation which would be the envy of any collector.

The first item comprises eight sets of team, or ‘latten’, bells. Such sets usually consist of between two and six bells mounted on a wooden frame which is then attached to the hames of a draught horse collar, providing warning to other road users of their approach. The Museum already had a good collection of team bells, but these latest additions make an impressive impact, particularly as four of the sets all belonged to one working horse team, and are marked accordingly, displayed in a wooden frame.

Tony also gave much of the harness he had collected and used with his own heavy horses, which he had sadly been unable to continue to manage some time ago. The harness is of very good quality and provenance and some of it will be used from time to time by our own Shire horses – something Tony would have been extremely happy with.

The final item he gave is probably the most valuable in terms of historical importance and rarity. It is a strawberry van (or waggon), a small, sprung farm vehicle which was used to transport the south-east Hampshire strawberry crop to market or railway stations for onward distribution. The van is displayed at the Museum in Redvins Yard.

Strawberry vans were often known as ‘Hayter vans’, as wheelwright and carpenter William Hayter of Portchester was principally responsible for their popularity. Our example is a 12-bushel capacity van and was supplied to Mr H Smith of Waltham Chase around 1910 at a cost of 44 golden sovereigns. Mr Smith was a resourceful smallholder and the van was purchased with the proceeds of selling a fine litter of porkers! After returning from the war in 1918, ‘Uncle’ Joe Smith bought a smaller, 10-bushel size, van from Hayters. By then the cost had risen to 75 sovereigns!

The strawberry van was eventually purchased by Tony and painstakingly restored by Peter Ingram of Selborne in the 1970s – even retaining Hayter’s painted trademark scroll banner and Mr Smith’s ‘parliamentary’ name, as legally required, on the offside front panel, together with his market number.

At his own request, the Museum provided our Shire horse, Neville, to pull the waggon for Tony’s final journey from his farm to the local church for his funeral (pictured right) and, on a happier note, it was also used by many of the younger members of the family for their return journey back to the farm.

Julian Bell

New opportunities for schools

Through our work with schools and local education authorities we have many opportunities to deliver learning in this way. For example, West Sussex launched this year’s initiative, Creativity across the Curriculum with 15 schools here in September. They will be exploring the development of creativity in teaching and learning as a way of achieving high standards across many subject areas. During the year they will expand on this theme and we hope to contribute to the process of creating rich learning experiences.

Earlier this year, thanks to generous sponsorship and provision of refreshments by the Friends, we were able to host a highly successful Teachers’ Primary Citizenship Conference. In the words of the learning advisers: “It enabled over 40 participants to explore and embed issues of citizenship and sustainability into whole school management practices and the curriculum”. We are planning a similar event next June, and expect some of the workshops to reflect the current initiatives and to demonstrate leading edge practice in making learning memorable.

The Year of Food and Farming has now begun and we are working with three schools to provide children with the opportunity to learn about food, farming and the countryside and related environmental issues. Our expectation is that at least one of the workshops at next year’s Primary Citizenship Conference will be based on this project.

Springline project

Springline is a project funded by English Heritage and youth services in Hampshire and West Sussex in which 10 young people from South Harting and East Meon were brought together and given the opportunity to learn about the history and develop job prospects around their rural homes. Through a series of workshops, the chosen 10 (aged 13-16) learnt about the need to protect their historic landscape and acquired rural skills relevant to their local area to enable them to see these as possible future career paths.

As part of the project they spent four days at the Museum learning about traditional building skills including timber-framed buildings, wattle and daub, thatching and lime. Jo Higgs, English Heritage Outreach Officer, said: “We are hoping to create a groundswell amongst the young people in raising awareness and interest in local craft skills and the special heritage of the South Downs area.” The South East contains pockets of rural deprivation hidden by surrounding affluence. The Springline project reaches out to these communities to increase their understanding of the local environment, develop skills and show how they can positively contribute to its protection and sustainability.

Sandford Award

It was rather daunting to discover the Museum had been awarded its first Sandford Award in 1996 and another in 2001! Luckily I have a brilliant team of staff and volunteers and we have not only been able to continue these high standards but also expand our ideas into other areas of the curriculum via our website. So, I was delighted when I received our judges report saying: “The Weald & Downland Open Air Museum offers first rate educational opportunities to visitors of all ages, backgrounds, interests and abilities. Not only does it play a very important part in the preservation of ancient buildings and traditional knowledge, it also has a great deal to teach us about sustainable and green living in the future“. I would like to thank everyone who helps us, but especially those who were involved on the day. We look forward to receiving our award this month at the RAF Museum in Shropshire, and plan to have a special presentation here at the Museum later in the year so that more colleagues and supporters can be part of the celebration.

Young people, left (and their feet, right) taking part in the Springline Project, which brings together young people from rural areas to increase their understanding of their local environment, develop skills and help them towards possible career paths.