The Tithe Barn
Sep
Whitchurch was once graced with an ancient tithe barn. Nigel Lewis explores what little is known of this great structure
Did you know we used to have a Tithe Barn in Whitchurch?
So where was it? It was on the west side of the old Merthyr Road, just north of the current hospital entrance and not far from the Hollybush Inn.
There was an ancient drover’s way, locally called ‘Heol Don’ which ran from the Wenallt to Llandaff, and just south of the Hollybush; it ran diagonally across a field and down towards Llandaff North.
This is the footpath that had to be abandoned to allow the mental hospital to be built. By re-routing the footpath further south, it ensured that the Library Park was given to the parish. Of course, there was no library back then – that’s a story for another time!
So, the spot where the old drover’s way and the Merthyr Road intersected, was the perfect site for a Tithe Barn.
There’s nothing there now, but on the old Ordnance Survey maps, it is recorded. It’s shown as a proper building on the maps of 1880 and 1900, and just as an outline on the 1920 map. By the time of the 1940 map, there’s no sign of it at all!
How old was it? The simple answer is, we don’t know; but probably many hundreds of years old. When a man called Draper was found hanged in the Tithe Barn in 1810, it was referred to then as ‘old’. There are examples of tithe barns locally in Glamorgan dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries, so our Tithe Barn could easily have been six or seven hundred years old.
What did it look like? Back in the nineteenth century, it was the biggest building in the village by far. If you measure the OS map footprint, it would have been about 30m long and 9m deep (100 feet by 27 feet)
The Royal Commission of Ancient and Historical Monuments Wales (RCHMW) suggest that these buildings were generally long and narrow with a central doorway on both front and back faces; tall enough for a haycart (or wain) to pass straight through. In Glamorgan, these buildings were usually built of stone, although some were constructed of timber with rendered panels. And they were tall, maybe 7-8m high (20-24 feet) to the eaves. I’m guessing that our Tithe Barn was constructed of local stone. This enormous structure would have needed external buttresses. And to ventilate the hay stored within the building, long slot vents or windows would have been provided all around. And of course, our Whitchurch Tithe Barn had a thatched roof.
The sketch above suggests what it might have looked like, early in the nineteenth century, at harvest time. The little boy with the pitchfork sitting on top of the cart looks like he was having a whale of a time!
So, what were tithes, and why did they need a barn to store them?
From the time of the Conquest, and probably long before then, tenant farmers were required to pay their rent as a tenth (a tithe) of their crop. This was often paid to the church or abbey who owned the land. In Whitchurch, in medieval times, there was no great abbey, just Llandaff across the river, and there were a number of absentee feudal landowners as well. Who had the Tithe Barn built, and who collected the tithes? Perhaps we’ll never know.
There’s a super photograph, recently found, of harvest-time in Rhiwbina; it looks remarkably like the sketch.
By 1841, the Tithe Map noted that our Tithe Barn was in a yard measuring ‘1 rood and 25 perches in extent’ – about half of an acre. The tenant then was David Thomas, who was also the tenant of Ty Clyd Farm adjacent. The landowner was Richard Blakemore, the man who had taken over Velindre and the Melingriffith Tinworks. It’s interesting to note that the Tithe Barn and Yard were considered to have no tithe value!
So, what happened to it?
Nearly 60 years after the Tithe Map, the village was expanding fast. The Cardiff Railway was being built nearby, with its bridge and sloping embankments (they’re still there today) separating the Hollybush Inn from the Tithe Barn. However, a disastrous fire broke out, and a report in the Evening Express newspaper dated 7th February 1900 reported:
Shortly before ten o’clock on Tuesday morning the Tithe Barn near Holly Bush, Whitchurch, was found to be on fire. An alarm was at once given, and Police-constables Bowen and Campbell, with some of the members of the Whitchurch Fire Brigade, were soon on the spot with the fire appliance. The barn, which had a thatched roof, contained a large quantity of straw, and there was no hope of saving it.
It was suggested that the fire was caused by ‘an engine passing nearby.’
How can it be that one of the oldest and biggest buildings in Whitchurch could be lost without trace in such recent times? Even Edgar Chappell, in his chronicle of Whitchurch Parish gives it scant reference. All that is there now is a stand of pine trees. Perhaps the foundations of the old Tithe Barn are still there, covered by the undergrowth? Who knows! I wonder what it would take to carry out an exploration?
If the Tithe Barn was located in a village in England, or even elsewhere in Glamorgan, the ruins, or perhaps a building outline would have been preserved
We have nothing, not even a plaque. The building deserves better. Surely our village deserves better.
What do you think?
Nigel Lewis is a member of AWEN@thelibrary (awen.cymru@gmail.com)
