York Historic Environment Record

building survey - NGR unknown Rupert’s Barn is thought to be a tithe barn, although its name is derived from a tradition that the troops of Prince Rupert were billeted within it in 1644, prior to the Battle of Marston Moor. It is a substantial brick-walled building retaining an earlier roof structure and parts of the frame below. The barn, reduced to around half its former length when the western part was destroyed by fire in 1928, now measures c. 19 by 9.4m externally, with walls c. 0.35 - 0.40m thick of brick, largely in English Garden Wall bond 1 and 5, with at irregular intervals header courses with alternating members omitted so as to form tiers of small rectangular vents. The west gable end is of 1928, apparently re-using old brick.The timber structure of the barn looks, stylistically, to be of late medieval or more likely post-medieval date. The scarf joints in the arcade plate have local counterparts in the late 16th and early 17th century. This dating agrees with the single aisled form of the barn, as the larger medieval barns tended to have two aisles (though there is no clear evidence that the original timber-framed structure only had one aisle). Prior to the 1928 fire, the building appears to have been around twice the present length, with a pair of cart entrances. This puts it into a relatively small class of large barns which are usually associated with an important manorial (or monastic) holdings. The barn appears to have been reconstructed in the first half of the 18th century. Presumably this reconstruction was prompted by the decay of the framed outer walls, which argues for their age to be at least pre-Civil War, as local tradition demands. The date of the various modifications to the roof structure of the barn is unclear, but these were presumably made to counteract racking, and it is apparent that there were continuing structural concerns. The long pseudo-windbraces that remain in bays 2,3, and 4, may be contemporary with the reconstruction in brick; the doubling of the purlins seems more recent, but both pre-date the 1928 fire. The large raked buttress at the west end of the south wall also pre-dates 1928.