When we moved into a converted barn a few years ago, I wasn’t aware that the building was formerly a Bank Barn.
Bank barns were an innovation which emerged in Cumbria in about 1660 and many were built, especially in hilly northern England, between then and the mid 19th century. We think ours is a fairly early example dating from the late 1600s which is the period when Over Kellet was ‘modernised’.
By making clever use of a slope in the land, a two-storey stone barn could serve a dual purpose thanks to the lay of the land, with entrances on both the upper and lower floors.
On the lower floor there would be a front entrance for animals, usually cattle, with byres or stables each side and a central walkway for access. At the same time the upper floor would be used for storage of corn or grain. Large double doors at the rear of the upper floor would give a cart direct access so that the grain could be emptied onto the upper floor. At the front of the upper floor was a small door, a ‘winnowing door’, which was opened when the grain was being threshed, providing a through-draught which would blow away the unwanted, lighter chaff.
When we bought our house, I was intrigued by its position at the bottom of a hill and with a steep back garden - but I knew nothing about bank barns. We were fortunate to find some photos of the barn before it was converted and these confirm that this was, indeed, a bank barn.
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| The front of the barn with the arched livestock entrance and the small (red) winnowing door on the upper floor |
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| The rear of the barn with the large upper floor entrance for grain carts |