Knapp Farm barns – a watercolour

Our stock of artistic interpretations of the local scene has increased considerably in recent times. Today we are looking at the Knapp Farm barns before their conversion to dwellings. Sadly this is unsigned and undated but we still think it is a lovely image.

Knapp Farm barns – a watercolour image

This picture is in a sealed frame behind glass. The slightly squiffy angle of the photo prevented too much reflection off the glass.

This lovely gentle picture actually looks much like a photo of the scene we showed last August (click here). That dates from 1998. This could be a little earlier.

We think the artist may have been Patrick Manley but we would appreciate advice on that.

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The barn at Lime Kiln

There have been many farms up on Salisbury Plain. Those in Market Lavington were taken over as part of the military range in about 1910. Farmers, their families and workers all had to go. There was no choice. Most of the farms were about to be used for target practice and obliterated.

But there were survivors, perhaps too near to the edge of the range and the villages beyond to be used as targets. One survivor was the barn at Lime Kiln Farm which is seen in this photo in gloriously snowy conditions.

The Barn at Lime Kiln in about 1965

Lime Kiln Farm was very close to the scarp edge. Our photographer was standing on the road up Lavington Hill close to where the reservoir is now. This photo got a caption on the back.

Caption – Demolished 1965?

The Barn at Lime Kiln. Demolished 196?

Now what an irritating last digit. We are not sure what it says so well just say mid 1960s – now some 50 years ago. Possibly demolition came when the reservoir was built.

This was almost a last really visible reminder of hill farming in Market Lavington.

It is also a reminder of snowfall. There is still time for some more this winter.

Knapp Farm Barns

People who live in what is now called White Horse Barns may like to see this photo of their homes, before conversion.

Knapp Farm Barns before conversion to White Horse Barns. The photo dates from 1997.

This photo, obviously not taken in ideal conditions, dates from about 1997, soon before the conversion into homes took place.

It is recognisably the same place, albeit it is a much tidier environment now. The conversion was very sympathetic to the original lines and purpose of the building.

 

 

Knapp Farm Barn

The second half of the 1950s was a time when wartime austerity was ending, we’d ‘never had it so good’ and it was time to get rid of old fashioned things and replace them with new. And that is precisely what happened to this barn.

Knapp Farm barn in 1957

This is a 1957 photo and work is in progress to remove the thatch from the barn roof.

Work is in progress to remove the thatch from the roof

There we see (just) a couple of men working on the barn roof with a tractor and trailer down below for collecting the discarded old thatching straw. The farmhouse can be seen beyond the barn and the photo must have been taken from somewhere near Broadwell.

This was very much an era for the removal of thatch. On dwelling houses it was replaced by tiles but a former thatched roof can often be picked out because they are much more steeply pitched than a standard tiled roof.

On a barn, it was deemed OK to replace the tiles with asbestos sheeting! Like Jesus on the cross, we must forgive the people who did this for at the time it was true to say, ‘they know not what they do’.

Some of this barn area has now been converted into desirable dwellings – ‘White Horse Barns’. That means these buildings look smart and tidy – far removed, of course, from their original purpose.

The bridge in Easterton

At Easterton Country Show, last month, we were visited by great grandchildren of Samuel Moore of the jam factory.

Samuel had two sons, Wilfred and William. The two younger men continued to run the jam factory after their father retired. William, who had a house on The Sands in Easterton, was the grandfather of our visitors and they brought an album of his photos for us to see and copy. William had not been all that good at labelling his photos and, not surprisingly, our young adult visitors couldn’t help all that much on dates. We are trying to work out names and dates of jam factory workers at the moment.

This is one of the photos, taken where the road up to the now gone factory crossed the little stream in Easterton and looking back down to Easterton Street.

On Easterton Bridge

Our visitors weren’t sure that this photo had anything to do with our area, but to us it was clearly Easterton. We think the man with the bucket is William (or Billy as locals seem to have called him) Moore. But we are not by any means 100% certain.

Is that Billy or William Moore?

However, we are 100% certain that the house behind the man’s left shoulder is The Homestead. When this photo was taken it was thatched but that was replaced long ago.

The lovely barn on the left of the photo is long gone.

Apparently a past owner was looking at the barn and pondering on what to do with regard to its derelict state and the roof fell in before his eyes. And that was the end of the barn. A modern house now sits high up on the slope behind it.

The current owner of The Homestead had not seen a photo of the barn before so what a great addition to our collection.

Thanks to Karen for bringing this for the museum.

Knapp Farm barn fire

On the night of 16^th/17^th September 1989 fire broke out at a barn at Knapp Farm. It was soon a raging inferno.

Knapp Farm barn ablaze on the night of 16/17th September 1989

Our curator, who lived on the opposite side of the village, recalls not just the sight of this fire, but also the noise. The roof was made of non-flammable asbestos sheeting. It may not actually burn but it makes very loud cracking noises as it breaks up.

The picture makes it clear that the open sided barn was a complete and utter write off. Anybody hoping to use the contents was doomed to disappointment.

When the dust had settled not much remained.

 

Barn fire aftermath

It is such a shame these things happen – or rather, are made to happen either by carelessness or deliberately. The knock on effect of the loss of winter feed for animals can make the difference between financial survival or not for a farmer and may mean that animals with potentially a long term future have to be slaughtered.

Other barns at the farm survived the fire undamaged, but they changed as the economics of life changed and are now dwellings called White Horse Barns.

The Old Barn

Not many barns can claim to be major community buildings but the old barn on Parsonage Lane certainly has been.

The barn was in Manorial ownership at one time, being in the grounds of The Old House. It is now a part of Barn Hill House.

Amongst things known about the barn and its uses we have that during renovations to the church in 1862, it was used for church services. Eleven years later, in 1873, the barn was fitted out as a smallpox hospital but was never used because the epidemic abated. The bodies of victims were not taken into the church, but the Vicar who visited the sick was amongst the victims.

It is sometimes known as ‘The Drill barn’ because the Home Guard met in the barn, which was also used for concerts and dances.

Our curator recalls a delightful guitar recital held in the barn – possibly about ten years ago.

We have just been given a copy of a photo of the barn taken in 1965.

The old barn on Parsonage Lane, Market Lavington in 1965

The barn is still much the same today.

The speed derestriction sign is of interest for it is almost in the heart of the village. Nowadays, drivers passing that sign would have the turning to Bouverie Drive on the right and then the mini roundabout at the junction with both Grove Road and Canada Rise. It’s no place to go fast and, indeed, speed restrictions exist much further out now.

Also of note is the clear resurfaced trench along the road on the right. This would have been from the sewerage scheme in the late 1950s.