Cruck Barn

The Cruck Barn at Tatton Old Hall started life at the beginning of the 17th century at a Cheshire farm near Frodsham. The barn is a fine example of a style once common in the Midlands and North, and is constructed from a series of paired timbers called crucks, each of which forms a shape like the letter A. In some parts of the country cruck trusses from the 14th century can still be found but those within Cheshire tend to date from the 15th and 16th centuries. The timbers are generally rougher and less finished than the higher standard of craftsmanship found in the earlier period but the Old Hall’s cruck barn still retains a rustic symmetry and grace.

Dilapidated and crumbling and expensive to restore, the barn at Frodsham was roofed with rusting corrugated iron. Several of its crucks had slipped off their plinths making total collapse imminent. In 1976 the plight of the barn was brought to the attention of Cheshire County Council’s Planning Department, who asked the farm owner if it could be taken down, brought to Tatton and restored. Since old maps showed that a barn had once existed at the Old Hall, the opportunity was taken to accept this generous offer of a valuable example of Cheshire’s vernacular architecture.

Undeterred by its condition, a team of one joiner and a small number of unskilled young people working under a job creation scheme carefully dismantled the barn. Much of the timber recovered was re-used and working from a prepared set of drawings it was reconstructed and restored on its current site. Its rebuilding provided many skills for young people who now, later in life, sometimes re-visit their handiwork and proudly say ‘I did that’.

The barn’s four sets of crucks are equally spaced along its 70 feet length and together with its timber- framed walls stand on a sandstone plinth. The plinth continues across doorways to form a 'thresh hold', literally to hold threshed corn within the building. Originally the in-fills of the frames would have been wattle and daub but at some point were replaced with brickwork, as bricks became cheaper and more readily available. This material would have made the building more weather and animal proof and easier to maintain. The roof is thatched with reed whose butt ends jut out and form the eaves drop, which casts rainwater away from the building.

The cruck barn plays an informative part in Old Hall tours and is used for schools’ education days as an example of timber-framed building with the chance to thresh, winnow and grind as people would have done in medieval and Tudor times. Children can also make wattle and daub, but perhaps to their disappointment we leave out the most important ingredient – cow manure!