Barns are our rural cathedrals
Brilliant article this – it explains:
“John Betjeman called it the Cathedral of Middlesex, and the romantic old poet wasn’t using poetic licence. Grade I-listed Manor Farm Barn in Harmondsworth – which English Heritage has just saved from collapse – is one of the great buildings of Britain, one of the biggest, best, oak-framed barns in the country. And, until now, one of the most ignored.
We British are admirably deferential to our grand buildings – to our country houses, our royal palaces, churches and genuine cathedrals. No other country in the world has an architectural preservation body as popular as the National Trust, which has just recruited its four millionth member.
But we neglect the buildings which produced the medieval wealth behind those country houses and cathedrals. Until the Industrial Revolution, it was farming that financed Britain. And the barn was the farm’s much-valued treasury – Harmondsworth Barn was built in 1426 to store the grain that paid for the upkeep of Winchester College, still one of the country’s most famous schools.
What interests me is the idea that a Greater London based building is deemded a “rural cathedral” all goes to show that “rural” is as much how you feel as where you sit!