Work has begun on restoring a unique 15th-century 44-metre-long barn in a bid to remove it from Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register.
Starting with a new thatched roof, the year-long project on Upminster Tithe Barn, on the outskirts of London, will cost over £740,000 and is a partnership between National Highways, Historic England and owners of the building, London Borough of Havering.
One of the earliest surviving buildings in the area, the remarkably unchanged medieval tithe barn is protected as a scheduled monument, which is the highest level of heritage protection. As its condition declined, Historic England added it the Heritage at Risk Register in 2023.
Using around 11,000 bundles of water reed weighing in at around 30 tonnes, four master thatchers and two apprentices have been hard at work over the freezing winter rethatching the huge barn.
Dr Jane Sidell, Principal Inspector of Ancient Monuments, Historic England says “Watching the thatchers at work really demonstrates the skill, care and attention needed to look after our most precious historic places so that they can be loved for longer.” You can see three months of their work in just four minutes in the fascinating time-lapse video below.
The finishing touch will be a pair of boxing hares made from straw which will sit on the ridge of the new thatched roof, which is expected to last for up to 60 years.
Part of the Waltham Abbey Estate, the tithe barn dates from around 1450, when the area was open countryside.
Waltham Abbey was an Augustinian order in Epping Forest, around 20 miles to the north-east, and was one of the most prosperous abbeys in the country. Nearby Grade II-listed Upminster Hall, which is now home to Upminster Golf Club, served as a rest stop or hunting lodge for the Abbot.
In the mid-15th century England was in the midst of an economic crisis known as the Great Slump. Driven by a shortage of silver used for making coins, trade had collapsed, which brought down agricultural prices, rents and levels of royal taxation. This played a part in civil uprisings and the outbreak of a series of civil wars between the Houses of Lancaster and York in a tussle for control of the English throne, subsequently known as the War of the Roses (1455 –1487).
At the time, grange barns like this were often used for storing tithes from an estate; a tithe is a 10% tax of produce from the farm, or earnings, given to the government or to support the church. The barn continued to be used after the monasteries were dissolved by King Henry VIII in 1540 and, despite a few alterations and fire damage, it remains remarkably unchanged today.
Through the Lower Thames Crossing scheme, National Highways contributed £650,000 to help restore the medieval building. Historic England’s Dr Jane Sidell says: “Securing the support of National Highways has been instrumental in getting the repair and restoration of this exceptionally important building off the ground. By working together we have developed a conservation scheme that will secure the tithe barn’s future and remove it from the Heritage at Risk Register.”
The barn was re-thatched in 1965 but damaged by fire in 1973. In 1976, Hornchurch and District Historical Society opened the barn as an agricultural and folk museum. It’s now called ‘The Upminster Tithe Barn Museum of Nostalgia’ which plans to reopen when the barn is restored. upminstertithebarn.co.uk
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