Barn Conversions in Cambridge

Historical agricultural buildings, including barns and stables, offer exciting opportunities for preservation and characterful redevelopment. Barns historically had a wide variety of uses, including storing & processing crops and managing & housing farm animals. More recently, they have been used by farmers for sheltering machinery.

What are the significance and key features of barns?

Barns are usually the oldest and largest farm buildings, with surviving historic examples a rarity; any built in the 16th century and earlier are of exceptional importance. 

The size of barns, alongside structural evidence of historical development and internal subdivision, can reveal differences in the wealth of farms and how these buildings have changed in response to national and local agricultural advances and trends. Certain barns have significant historical importance, through evidence for mechanisation (introduced in the late 18th century and adopted in certain areas, most obviously in the form of chimney stack additions for static steam engines) and for water power, in the form of leats which carried water to the building.

Traditional barns were internally subdivided into bays, which were usually demarcated by roof trusses, wall posts or major partitions. The number of bays often reflected the size of the farm and its corn crop, but they could also be for animal stalls with lofts above for storing grain or hay.

Barns were commonly extended from their original layout with lean-tos (outshots) for cattle. From the late 1800s, many barns were converted into housing for cows and fodder processing, or storage buildings. Barns may retain their stalling as evidence of this function change. Below are a few other key features of historic barns:

• Opposing doors to a threshing bay, where the harvested crop was beaten out and the grain separated from the lighter chaff.

• Other openings for forking the crop into storage bays, or hay for animals, and doorways into animal housing or spaces which could be used for purposes such as shearing sheep.

• Chaff houses were small rooms accessed from the threshing bay for storing husks from the grain crop (chaff), to use as animal feed.

Where historic subdivisions and features exist, these should be retained and integrated within the proposals where possible, as a heritage benefit and interesting and unique feature.

Historic barns are popular starting points for conversion into dwellings, but the route to achieving planning permission needs to be considered from the outset, especially if the structure is rural and outside of the local development boundary or of heritage importance.

How can Inclume assist you with an architectural barn conversion project?

Our past experience working on barn projects in Cambridgeshire includes recently undertaking a Heritage Appraisal for a 19th century blacksmiths barn within a conservation area. Blacksmiths' barns are a common sight in the Cambridgeshire area and are part of the region's rich agricultural heritage.

We are interested in how these special structures can be preserved for future generations, by adapting historic barns into habitable buildings fit for the 21st century. The buildings often have a rustic charm which can be preserved and exhibited, while sensitively upgrading them to meet current regulations standards. Our team includes a qualified RIBA Conservation Architect and an Architect Accredited in Building Conservation (AABC), making Inclume well suited to working on these important buildings.