22 OLD WEST SURREY 



for loading timber, lighter chains for odd purposes, and a 

 variety of the lesser implements of husbandry. 



The picture shows the wooden barn-shovel for shovelling 

 grain and the old wooden seed-lip for the sower. He 

 carried it slung by a strap, steadying it with the left hand 

 by the upright handle, while he cast the grain abroad with 

 a round sweep of the right arm, that moved in rhythmical 

 accordance with his forward progress. 



This fine old farm has a grand range of barns, such as are 

 only surpassed in massive structure and ample capacity by the 

 old tithe barns built by the monks. They 

 inclose the farmyard on the eastern and 

 southern sides, the faces here most exposed 

 to rough weather, for the ground rises to the 

 west and north. A long stretch of cattle- 

 shed is to the west, and a detached range 

 Lead Ventilator of stabHng a few yards away> on a higher 



level, to the north. The farmyard is therefore amply 

 protected, though its large area gives it plenty of air and 

 sunlight. 



The main part of the great barn is 91 feet long and 22 

 feet wide, and in height measures 13 feet to the underside of 

 the tie-beams. At the end, behind the spectator as in the 

 picture, an additional length of barn, measuring 71 by 20 

 feet, stretches away to the left, forming a L-shaped plan. 



Early in the nineteenth century, when corn was at a 

 high price at the end of the great war, these barns were 

 reckoned to hold £1000 worth of grain, to be threshed as 

 required on the floors between the bays. Some of the last 

 handwork by threshing with the flail in this district was done 

 on the floor of the barn in the picture. 



It was considered a matter of good management to store 

 oats in the barn rather than in the rick. It was threshed out, 



