Steeple Ashton buildings [2]

Image: © Michael Dibb Taken: 14 Feb 2023

At Manor Farm, The Strand, is this barn with a horse engine shed for a threshing machine. Constructed in the early 19th century of seven bays of coursed rubble stone under a Welsh slate roof. There is a polygonal, weatherboarded horse engine shed. The attached red brick chimney stack was added, probably in the late 19th century, when steam power replaced horsepower. The barn has a queen-strut truss roof. One of a pair of matching barns at Manor Farm, see Image for the other barn. Listed, grade II, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1252694 The village of Steeple Ashton is a former market town, having been granted a weekly market in 1266. It lies some 3¼ miles east of Trowbridge and some 7 miles southwest of Devizes. The town became wealthy from its cloth industry, but there was a great fire in the early 16th century, and when it came to rebuilding the industry moved to the nearby town of Trowbridge, where the River Biss provided power for fulling mills. The first part of the village name comes from the former church spire, which collapsed in 1670.

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