One of our most enjoyable tasks to date was working on a traditional field barn in the Yorkshire Dales.
Our tasks including removing the original stone flagged roof setting aside for reuse. We then relayed the roof using all the original flags on one side.
Stone gables were carefully traced and numbered, taken down and rebuilt to some 95% original accuracy.
The Oak Boskin stall feet had rotted away and needed rails and scarfed in post feet.
The stone tiles were refixed with hand clefted oak pegs with the use of a few sheep's rib bones as in the true vernacular tradition. Due to the twist on some of the tiles (all laid in diminishing courses) we bedded the bottom edges in a lime mortar mix.
The situation creating it’s own unique set of problems mainly that the field barn was inaccessible by road. To overcome this we had to install a foot bridge over the river Wharfe some 25m long, the river itself being prone to flash flooding with the water rising 1m in an hour at times.
