Bredon Barn

Bredon Barn is a large 14th-century threshing barn of local Cotswold stone, built in around 1350, during the time of the Black Death, for the Bishops of Worcester. Long called a tithe barn, it is now thought to have been a manorial barn, storing crops for the bishops, who were also lords of the manor. It measures roughly 40 by 12 metres under a steep roof of Cotswold limestone tiles, and oak posts on stone plinths divide the aisled interior into 9 bays beneath an open timber roof; the stone chimney cowling is an unusual survival. Given to the National Trust in 1951, the Grade I listed barn was still storing crops when fire swept through it in 1980, and it was restored over the following three years. Today it shelters doves and several species of bat. Reviewers like the information boards and the no-frills setting among thatched houses. Visitors warn that pigeon droppings can make the unlit, uneven floor unpleasant. The Trust provides no car park and asks visitors to come on foot or by bicycle.