Local History Group

The Local History Group normally meets on the first Thursday of each quarter at Old Holly's, Tubbs Lane at 8pm. Please contact Ron Snipp (details below) if you are interested.

Having a clearout? Before you ditch those old local documents or photos, think of us. See below for details of what we are collecting.

What we do

Feature (Autumn 2011)

Barns in Highclere

Barns With harvesting well under way (in between the showery weather) let's look back at one aspect of our agricultural past which remains today. Highclere and its outlying farms have several interesting barns, several of which are listed buildings. In 1985 the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) conducted a 'Domesday Survey of Ancient Barns' around the country.

Parish Council Minutes

In Spring 1985, the minutes noted that:

"The Society [SPAB] are seeking volunteers from a Parish Council or Community Body [the Highclere Society did not then exist!] to complete a simple questionnaire for all barns in the area"

Resolved: The Clerk will contact the Society for further details and the Parish Council will consider participating in the survey."

At the AGM held in the village hall on 14th May 1985, an updated was provided under 'any other business':

"Councillor French had volunteers to undertake the survey of old barns in the Parish on behalf of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Barns [sic, Buildings]. The Clerk has a supply of extra forms should any person wish to survey the barns in their locality and pass on to Miss French to complete the survey.

The Survey

The questionnaire was two pages and asked about postion, size, conditions, building materials and gave some shape and beam diagrams for the surveyor to tick. Some of the barns surveyed were at Top Farm and Blakes Farm in Highclere Street, Zell House Farm, and Dairy Farm in Highclere Park. Following the completion of the survey, the Parish Council minutes for 15th January 1986 read:

"The survey had been a very intersting exercise with the discovery of many interesting old barns, some very skilfully converted to private dwellings or garages. The survey also discovered some very old barns which unfortunately had been demolished in the name of progress."

As we look around today we see that most of the surveyed barns survive and continue life in a variety of uses. SPAB gives a list of "suggested alternative agricultural uses", most of which are based on storage - of materials, modern machinery and so on, adding that barns "provide an excellent means of concealing these [potential eyesores] from general view". It continues "Two extremely common uses for older farm buildings are as garages for tractors or as farm workshops", and later "Lastly, there is a use which all farmers should be aware of - the farm shop".

Alas, we don't have a farm shop in the village (though The Natural Garden in a modern barn comes close), but we do now have locally the monthly Woolton Hill Village Market selling produce from (relatively) local farms.

Material in this section is © copyright of Highclere Society and contributors and must not be reproduced without their permission.

Highclere History CD

Produced in 2003, this CD contains over 500Mb of content, including copies of the survey sheets for several of the old barns, as well as photos old and modern. It includes the Highclere Past & Present booklet and has 20 detailed sections from which the booklet was derived:

The CD-ROM was made possible with a grant from the National Local Heritage Initiative Scheme as well as support from Nationwide and the Countryside Agency. You can access all this wonderful material by contacting Ron Snipp (details at the bottom of this page) for the princely sum of £5!

How you can help

We are still collecting, scanning and promptly returning photographs and documents illustrating the History of the Village. Here's how you can contribute to our growing collection:

Any document we receive is protected and filed in ring binders and will be available to be read as part of an on-going Parish History. If you want to present material for archive purposes but do not wish it to be published, then we will respect your wishes.

Thank you in advance for your involvement and help.

For further information

If you think you may be able to help in any way please contact Ron Snipp (Tel: 01635 254026) or email rgs*highclerevillage.com (substitute @ for *).