Tithe barn

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A tithe barn was a type of barn used in England and Germany in the Middle Ages and in the United States for storing the tithes - a tenth of the farm's produce which had to be given to the church. Abbey barns, large warehouse-like barns found on Abbey estates, are often mistakenly referred to as tithe barns. Tithe barns would usually have been smaller barns, often associated with the village church or rectory, to which independent farmers took their tithes. Abbey estates would not pay tithes as they were owned by the church in any case. Mormon tithe barns, graneries, and offices in the U.S.A. started going into private hands after 1908 when the Mormon Church went to a cash system, and there are very few buildings remaining.

There are many surviving examples of medieval tithe barns in England:

• Aberford C of E Primary School, Aberford, Leeds
• Ashleworth Tithebarn, Gloucestershire
• Bardwell Tithe Barn, Bardwell, Suffolk
• Bradford-on-Avon tithe barn
• Calcot Manor tithe barn, Gloucester
• Church of the Holy Ghost, Midsomer Norton, Somerset
• Dunster Tithe Barn [1]
• East Riddlesden Hall (National Trust)
• Frindsbury, Kent
• Great Coxwell Tithe Barn, Oxfordshire
• Great Tithebarn, Westwick
• Holbrook, Horsham,West Sussex
• Lacock, Wiltshire
• Lenham, Kent.
• Melling Tithebarn, Merseyside
• Nether Poppleton Tithebarn, City of York
• Pilton, Somerset
• Place Farm, Tisbury, Wiltshire
• Swalcliffe Barn, Oxfordshire
• Th'Owd Tithebarn, Garstang, Lancashire, on the Lancaster Canal

There is also a tithe barn at Atlantic College, South Wales, and in Scotland, the Barn Church, Culloden was originally a tithe barn.

[edit] See also

• Staddle stones Staddle stones and tithe barns.