Traditional designs for British farm buildings--barns, mills, pigsties, cowsheds, dovecotes, and other types--originated in the Middle Ages and developed through the various agricultural revolutions, until the slump of the 1880s brought an end to new building. Since then changes in the rural economy have led to buildings designed principally for professional and commercial activity. But traditional farm buildings still survive in remarkable numbers, and they form essential elements in the British landscapes of villages and countryside, although they are no longer appropriate to modern farming.
This informative book combines text with diagrams and specially taken photographs to explain and illustrate the farm buildings still seen today. It records the origins and uses of traditional building types, then explores the conflicting demands of conservation and re-use and the dangers of enthusiastic restorers who may unwittingly destroy the character of that which they desire to preserve.