Exhibition 45

'Barns' - 4 mins looped Super 8 film

Change in Dwellings in Isolated Farmsteads 1998-2003

The Department of Town and Regional Planning as part of the Countryside Quality Counts programme (now managed by Natural England) have identified that there have been increases in property Post Code Addresses referred to as ‘X Barn’ (this includes terms such as ‘The Barn,’ ‘The Old Barn,’ ‘Highstones Head Barn’ but excludes terms such as ‘Common Barn Farm,’ ‘Barn Cottage’ or ‘Barn Again Bistro’). There is direct evidence of the likely role of property conversion.

Research shows that in 1998 there were 9,988 properties in villages in England or on their fringes, in hamlets or adjoining isolated farms. Over the following five years, the numbers of such properties within the same settlement contexts had grown to 13,920, an increase of 39%.

In hamlets and isolated farms, the numbers of ‘barn’ properties increased from 3243 to 4935, or over 52%.