Look into most British vehicles on their way back from France and you will
find the usual stash of fine wines, smelly cheese and the odd tin of foie
gras. Nose into one or two, however, and you might also find a lorry-load of
antique oak-framed barn. Such is our passion for old farm buildings that
some people, despairing of ever finding what they are looking for in
Britain, are sourcing barns on the other side of the Channel and rebuilding
them here instead.
Geoffrey Dann, 69, a semi-retired farmer from East Sussex, has done just that,
and is delighted with the result. He wanted to find a timber frame to slot
around the remains of a ruined 18th-century barn he was converting on land
at Brede, near Rye, but drew a blank. Frazer Haywood, the timber-frame
renovation firm he employed to manage the reconstruction, came up with a
solution: an 18th-century oak-built grain store from rural Normandy.
“We went to France to have a look around, and the barn just caught our eye, so
we went to see the farmer,” says Jason Wright, a director with the firm,
based in Westfield, a few miles from Dann’s farm. “He had been trying to
find a way of restoring the barn for a couple of years, and was almost at
the point of cutting it down and burning it.”
Instead, Haywood bought the barn, dismantled it — carefully labelling every
piece — and brought it back to Britain, where it was merged with the
remnants of the existing barn.
The result, says Dann, is the ideal four-bedroom home for his daughter, Karen,
36, her boyfriend, Nathan Jones, 34, and their children, George, 2, and
Harry, aged three months. The total build cost was £250,000 — of which
£170,000 went on buying and rebuilding the barn, and associated joinery.
“It’s the look of the thing,” says Dann. “Old oak sets it off better than new.
And old beams give it an historic feel. It’s a job to find old timbers in
this country any more.”
From the outside, their new home is English in style, with feather-edge boards
on the walls and a tiled roof, but the glories of the French oak are on
display throughout the interior. Even the king pins (the main vertical
posts), which were not needed for the main structure, are visible within the
interior walls.
Wright says most people’s motivation for reconstructing an old barn rather
than building from scratch is aesthetic. “Old timbers are more stable and
seasoned,” he says. “Plus, people just like the idea — it is nice to have
something that has been around for a long time.”
Subject to receiving planning permission, you can also put your piece of
history where you want it: useful if the barn is to be turned into a garage
or a pool house that needs to blend in with another old property.
Finding a British barn that can be moved in this way may be difficult: many
are listed, and it is rare for permission for dismantling to be granted.
Even when a barn is not protected, such is the thirst for those with
development potential that competition among would-be buyers is usually
fierce.
“If someone has a barn over here, they will convert it and sell it,” says
Sylvester Stankovitch of Artisan Oak Buildings, a Kent-based specialist in
reclaimed oak that also sells barns.
Across the Channel, stocks of barns are more plentiful and less regulated.
Traditionally, the French have preferred stone barns, although there are
signs this could be changing.
“In rural France, there are so many disused farm buildings, it is like a
generation ago in England,” says David Ackers, an interior architect and
consultant with BCA Matériaux Anciens, a French company that sources antique
materials. “In theory, you still need permission to demolish these
buildings, but they are perhaps more relaxed on the ground in rural areas of
France than they would be in the UK.”
Before going ahead with any project, you must first find a suitable site and
make sure that you will be able to obtain the necessary planning permission
— challenging enough if you are converting an existing barn, let alone
shipping one over in pieces from France.
Then you must find the barn itself. While some companies source them for
specific projects, frames can also be bought from existing stocks. For
example, Antique Buildings, a specialist in ancient oak-framed buildings
based in Godalming, Surrey, is selling Favrolles barn, an early 17th-century
Normandy farm building 96ft x 21.5ft x 25ft, for £85,000 (excluding Vat).
Included in the price is the frame, detailed plans and specifications and a
free consultancy. The cost of the rebuild is not included, however, and will
vary considerably depending on factors such as the site that is chosen and
soil conditions.
Rebuilding is also a highly skilled process: care has to be taken when
dismantling the structure to ensure the joints are not damaged. As part of
the process, the barn should be photographed, laser levels and measurements
taken, beams numbered and plans drawn up.
To keep things simple, it is usually advisable for the same team to dismantle
and then reconstruct the frame. “Otherwise, you can end up with an expensive
heap of firewood,” says John Langdon, the managing director of Heritage Oak
Buildings, a specialist in English antique oak-framed properties.
Not everyone is keen on the idea of dismantling barns and rebuilding them
hundreds of miles away from their original setting, however. “It is the
worst kind of heresy as far as we’re concerned,” says Matthew Slocombe, the
deputy secretary of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.
“There is a huge physical impact when you take down a building, even a
timber frame — it never comes out the same as when it started.
“We also feel there’s a strong attachment between a building and its site. If
it has been there for hundreds of years and you take it from its site,
you’re divorcing it from its past.”
He is even more worried about moving frames across the Channel. “You are
robbing France to get a building that is rather incongruous in its current
context,” he says.
Frazer Haywood, 01424 757888, www.frazerhaywood.com;
Antique Buildings, 01483 200477, www.antiquebuildings.com;
Heritage Oak Buildings, 01798 344066, www.heritage-oak-buildings.com;
Artisan Oak Buildings, 01233 740140, www.artisanoak.co.uk
