In the 15th and 16th centuries well-to-do families demonstrated their wealth by living in a fine house, preferably surrounded by a large estate and with embellished gateways. The house would occasionally be topped off by a Great Barn. These barns were dark and airy places with ventilation slits or brick honeycomb instead of windows, and they had a thatched roof constructed with king posts, queen posts and hammer beams. The Great Barn used to be the estate's corn store and threshing place, with all barn doors open so the wind could blow away the chaff. There are a handful of outstanding examples of Great Barns in Norfolk, a county which had made its money originally from wool.
The Great Barn >
Link adjoining the former Hales Hall >
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Link is believed to be the largest and possibly the oldest medieval brick-built barn in England. Both Hall and barn were built by Sir James Hobart, Hentry VII's attorney general, in 1480. Only parts of the main house remain but the barn survives in all its statuesque glory. Its brick walls are two and a half feet thick and punctuated by decorative ventilation slits, with two large doorways in the northern flank and three in the southern. It has a fourteen bay roof, eleven of the bays having tie-beams, queen-posts and collar trusses, and three with king posts above queen posts.
The barn was re-thatched in 1996 with funding by English Heritage. Reads Nursery occupies part of the courtyard area. The nursery grows conservatory plants, topiary, fruit trees, climbers and special shrubs and has the National Collection of figs, grapes and oranges.
The land surrounding Hales Hall and Great Barn is being managed under the Countryside Stewardship Scheme run by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and part-funded through the European Communities >
Link.