An ancient timber-framed house with its attendant farm buildings nestling amidst a patchwork of tiny hedge-lined fields makes an idyllic country scene. Such views, once common, are now rare. Few farms remain, and even where they do the traditional working buildings have usually been replaced by modern industrial-style sheds. Although the farmhouses survive, numerous gems of vernacular farm architecture - prominent landscape features in their day - have been lost during the past two or three decades, many without even a photograph to record them. This is a particular tragedy in the case of the High Weald of Sussex which was exceptional for the number of its early surviving farm buildings.


This volume is a study of these under-rated buildings, and the culmination of twenty five years of research. The aim is to give a clear overview of how the region's barns and ancillary farm buildings wre designed to meet the needs of local agriculture and to indicate how these needs changed during the 300 years up to the mid-18th century. The text is augmented with an extensive selection of archive photographs, perspective views and architectural drawings, many illustrating buildings which no longer exist. Originally published privately, this is now available for the first time under the Heritage imprint, from Oxbow.