The finished barn: black feather-edge cladding over a rebuilt stone and brick plinth, under a hipped roof of corrugated tin, standing in grass at the edge of a wood.

Pulborough · 2025

A barn saved from ruin, Pulborough

A timber-framed barn taken back from collapse: the roof stripped to lighten it, the building jacked back to its original height, new base plates and posts let into the old oak frame, the stone walls rebuilt, and a tin roof chosen so it can come off again.

Town: Pulborough

A timber-framed barn near Pulborough, taken back from collapse. The main post and the base plates under it had rotted out completely, and the building had dropped with them.

The order it had to happen in

Everything on this job was decided by one problem: the frame could not be repaired while it was carrying a roof, and it could not be lifted while it was carrying that roof either. So the tiles came off first, the building came up second, and the new timber went in third. Doing any of those in a different order would have pulled the frame apart.

Why the roof is tin and not tile

The tiles that came off were modern concrete — a later covering, much heavier and much newer than the building under it, and not what a barn of this age should be wearing.

Corrugated tin is the honest answer for a building at this stage. It is light, it is cheap, it keeps the weather out completely, and it is fixed rather than bedded, so it can be taken off again without waste if the barn is ever taken further. A roof that can be removed is worth more here than one that cannot.

How it went in

01

Before

A timber-framed barn with its roof still on and very little else holding it up. The covering is modern concrete tile, heavy and much later than the building under it. Corrugated sheets had come off the sides, the frame had dropped, and the main post and the base plates it stood on had rotted out entirely.

The same barn from the front with sheets of rusted corrugated iron hanging off the elevation and lying on the ground, and the tiled roof heavy with moss above. — Cladding off, frame exposed

The closed side of the barn before work, clad in rusted corrugated iron over a stone plinth, under the mossy hipped concrete tile roof. — The closed side

02

Taking the weight off

Nothing could be lifted while the roof was still on it. The tiles came off first — a concrete tile is heavy, and stripping the covering took enough load out of the building to let it be moved at all. What was left was the frame and the rafters, standing on scaffold, with the shape of the original roof still legible in it.

The barn stripped to its bare roof structure and surrounded by scaffold, the rafters and lattice bracing standing open against the sky with fields beyond. — Stripped to the frame

The stripped roof frame seen along the building from the scaffold, rafters and collars running away in a line above the open sides. — Along the frame

03

Jacking it back up

Then the building goes back to the height it was built at. Props and jacks take the frame at every bearing, and it comes up slowly and together — an old frame lifted at one corner and not another simply tears itself apart at the joints. This is the part of the job that decides whether anything after it is worth doing.

The oak frame carried on adjustable steel props and a screw jack under the main beam, with the posts standing clear of the ground on padstones while the base is rebuilt. — Props at every bearing

A wide view along the inside of the barn with the whole frame held on props and jacks, the stone plinth opened up along one side and the roof structure above. — The whole frame, held

04

New base plates and posts

With the load off them, the rotten base plates and the main post come out and new oak goes in. The plates are cut and jointed to the old frame rather than butted against it, levelled along the stone, and the posts dropped back onto them. Repairs run up into the frame and the rafters wherever the rot had climbed.

A new oak sole plate lying on the stone wall with a lap joint cut into its end, a level, a hammer and a nail punch beside it and shavings on the ground. — Cut to join the old frame

A new oak sole plate being levelled along the top of the stone wall, a long spirit level laid on it and the old frame standing above on props. — Levelled along the stone

New oak base plates set out along two sides of the barn on the rebuilt stone wall, with the old tiles stacked in a heap outside and the frame propped above. — New plates, two elevations

The frame strapped and ratcheted while a new base plate is fitted beneath it, with props under the beam and the field beyond. — Strapped while it is worked

05

The stone walls

The plinth the whole thing stands on had to come back too. Sections were taken down, sorted and rebuilt in the same stone, with brick where brick was there before. It is the least visible work on the job and the reason the frame above it now has something square and solid to bear on.

The stone plinth opened up along one elevation, the frame above held on props and scaffold, with loose stone stacked ready to go back. — Opened up

The rebuilt stone wall running the length of the barn under the propped oak frame, with fresh stone stacked alongside and the field beyond. — Rebuilt in the same stone

06

Studwork, cladding and the tin

Softwood studwork goes into the walls — partly to stiffen the building, partly to give the new black feather-edge cladding something to fix to. The roof is corrugated tin, and that is a deliberate choice twice over. The tiles that came off were modern concrete and did not belong on a building this old. And tin lifts off again: if the barn is ever taken further, the covering comes away without being wasted, and in the meantime the building is dry.

The barn with its new corrugated tin roof on and the first bay of black feather-edge cladding fixed to one gable, over the rebuilt stone and brick plinth. — Tin on, cladding started

Inside the barn looking along the new softwood studwork and bracing fixed between the old oak posts, under the underside of the corrugated tin. — Studwork between the old posts

The underside of the tin roof from inside, the old oak rafters and collars running up to the ridge with new softwood boarding and studwork below. — Old rafters, new covering

The inside of the barn clad out in new studwork and boarding along one elevation, with an original oak post on its stone base in the foreground. — Clad out, post standing

07

Finished

A sound, dry, open barn standing where a collapsing one was. Black boarding over a rebuilt stone and brick plinth, a tin roof, and the original oak frame still doing the work inside it — repaired where it had to be, and left alone where it did not.

The finished barn from the corner, its open side showing the repaired oak frame and bracing inside, black cladding to the closed elevations and tin above. — The open side

The finished barn seen square on from the field: black cladding, rebuilt stone and brick plinth and a hipped tin roof, with woodland behind. — Square on

This project involved renovation and conversion work, oak frame work, hand cut and trussed roofs. See more work across West Sussex.

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