The Cruck Barn, Cuperham Lane, Romsey

Builder: Grist Buildings Services Ltd. Southampton

Carpenter Oak and Woodland Co. Ltd (Timber Frame)

Date: 1994–1995

The Cruck Barn was last used as a dwelling in the 1920s and had then been used as a barn by the adjacent smallholding.  When the County Council acquired the site, the adjacent land on one side of the barn was sold in the 1970s for a housing development. Unfortunately, at that time, the historical significance of the building had not been recognised and the building of the new estate was allowed to  come within a few feet of the rear wall of the barn.

Subsequently, after a 1992 archaeological evaluation of the site had suggested that the building dated from before 1500 A.D., dendrochronological (tree ring) dating by Dan Miles from Reading revealed that the building was constructed from trees felled in the spring of 1376 and that the building was probably erected in the summer of the same year.  The important cruck beams of black poplar were repaired at their bases and many of the medieval rafters were replaced with hand-hewn oak. 

A new tiled roof was constructed over the original roof.  The most striking feature of the restoration is the retention of the medieval hall, that extends from the ground floor to the eaves where beams, blackened by fires from many centuries ago are still visible.  In addition, a panel of the original wattle and daub has been left exposed showing the finger markings of one of the mediaeval builders.

Work was completed by late 1995 and the restoration of this building, now approximately 620 years old, makes it not only one of the oldest domestic buildings in current use in Romsey but also in the whole of the South of England.