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Harmondsworth Great Barn

15th-century architecture in the United KingdomBarns in EnglandBuildings and structures completed in the 15th centuryBuildings and structures in the London Borough of HillingdonEnglish Heritage sites in London
Grade I listed agricultural buildingsGrade I listed buildings in the London Borough of HillingdonHistory of MiddlesexTimber framed buildings in LondonTithe barns in EuropeTourist attractions in the London Borough of Hillingdon
Harmondsworth Great Barn interior
Harmondsworth Great Barn interior

Harmondsworth Great Barn (also known as Manor Farm Barn) is a medieval barn on the former Manor Farm in the village of Harmondsworth, in the London Borough of Hillingdon, England. It is north-west of fields and the A4 next to Heathrow Airport. Built in the early 15th century by Winchester College, it is the largest timber-framed building in England and is regarded as an outstanding example of medieval carpentry. It was described by the English poet John Betjeman as the "Cathedral of Middlesex". A similar though smaller barn is part of the Manor Farm complex in Ruislip. The barn was briefly in royal ownership but passed into the hands of three families who continued to use it for agricultural purposes until as late as the 1970s. It was subsequently owned by a property development company which redeveloped the farm complex. After the company went bankrupt in 2006, the barn was bought by property speculators betting on its compensation value if the nearby Heathrow Airport was expanded. The barn fell into disrepair and was closed to the public for all but one day a year. English Heritage stepped in, using a rare legal procedure to carry out repairs without the owner's consent, and eventually purchased the barn in January 2012. It is now open to the public from April to October on the second and fourth Sunday of each month under the management of the Friends of the Great Barn group.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Harmondsworth Great Barn (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Harmondsworth Great Barn
Blondell Close, London Harmondsworth (London Borough of Hillingdon)

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Wikipedia: Harmondsworth Great BarnContinue reading on Wikipedia

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N 51.4897 ° E -0.4799 °
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Harmondsworth Great Barn

Blondell Close
UB7 0NL London, Harmondsworth (London Borough of Hillingdon)
England, United Kingdom
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english-heritage.org.uk

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Harmondsworth Great Barn interior
Harmondsworth Great Barn interior
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Harmondsworth
Harmondsworth

Harmondsworth is a village in the London Borough of Hillingdon in the county of Greater London with a short border to the south onto London Heathrow Airport and close to the Berkshire county border. The village has no railway stations, but adjoins the M4 motorway and the A4 road (the Bath Road). Harmondsworth was in the historic county of Middlesex until 1965. It is an ancient parish that once included the large hamlets of Heathrow, Longford and Sipson. Longford and Sipson have modern signposts and facilities as separate villages, remaining to a degree interdependent such as for schooling. The Great Barn and parish church are medieval buildings in the village. The largest proportion of land in commercial use is related to air transport and hospitality. The village includes public parkland with footpaths and abuts the River Colne and biodiverse land in its Regional Park to the west, once the grazing meadows and woodlands used for hogs of Colnbrook. The west of the parish has two major airline headquarters (international and local) and two immigration detention centres: the larger is for a maximum of 620 men without leave (permission) to enter or remain in the United Kingdom. Many international visitors stay within the church-based bounds of Harmondsworth, as all hotels are branded as "Heathrow", a former hamlet and other farmsteads that were absorbed by the airport. In October 2016 it was announced by HM Government that Heathrow Airport would receive permission to apply for a third runway. According to current expansion plans, around half of the existing village of Harmondsworth will have to be demolished to make way for the north-west runway and surrounding grass safety area. The other half, including the parish church and Great Barn, will be only a few metres from the airport perimeter.