Sources for Harmondsworth Barn

This section includes the sources, both published and unpublished, for our current knowledge and understanding of Harmondsworth Barn. 

Harmondsworth Barn in 1792, looking in good repair and one of its side doors open - there is a red archive stamp to the lower edge
Pen and wash drawing of 1792 by Daniel Lysons, showing the barn from the south-west © London Metropolitan Archives

Primary Sources (Unpublished)

British Library

  • Additional MS 6164 [18th-century copy of extent of Harmondsworth manor, 1293–4]

   
London Metropolitan Archives

  • Acc0446/EM/040 [list of properties in manor of Harmondsworth, c 1587–8]
  • Acc0446/ED/151 [agreement concerning lease of Court Lodge and Great Barn, 1613]
  • Acc0446/ED/152–164 [leases of Court Lodge, 1632–98]
  • Acc0446/EM/015 [rental of Harmondsworth, 1662]

   
The National Archives

  • E 132/3/57 [14th-century copy of a charter of King Offa of Mercia to Aeldred, his minister, of 20 hides of land at Harmondsworth in return for 100 mancuses of gold in a bracelet, 781]
  • E 31/2/1 fol 129 [entry concerning Harmondsworth in Domesday survey, 1086]
  • SC 11/444 [late 14th-century copy of custumal of Harmondsworth manor temp Henry III/Edward I]
  • E 101/2/1 [extent of the manor of Harmondsworth, 1293–4]
  • E 106/8/31 [undated inventory of possessions at Harmondsworth manor temp Edward II]
  • SC 6/1126/5 [account of Harmondsworth manor, 7 Oct–10 Dec 1324]
  • SC 8/69/3428 [petition concerning Harmondsworth manor, c 1300–50]
  • SC 8/203/10143 [petition of tenants of Harmondsworth manor against the Prior of Harmondsworth, c 1307–27]
  • E 106/7/18 no. 8 [extent of Harmondsworth manor, 1324]
  • C 270/17 no. 7 [extent of Harmondsworth manor, 1337]
  • C 145/139 no. 19 [extent of Harmondsworth manor, 1340]
  • SC 8/116/5755 [petition of the Prior of Harmondsworth for new copies of charters and relief from his rent, c 1381–2]
  • SC 6/1126/6 [account of Harmondsworth manor, 1388–9]
  • SC 6/1126/7 [account of Harmondsworth manor, 1433–4]
  • SC 12/11/20 [late 14th-century copy of custumal of Harmondsworth manor temp Henry III/Edward I with rental of manor, c 1377–91]
  • SC 2/191/14–SC2/191/31 [court rolls of Harmondsworth manor, 1377–1531]
  • E 315/463 [lease of the manor of Harmondsworth, 1540]
  • SC 6/HenVIII/2105 [account of Harmondsworth manor, 1544–5]
  • E 178/1430 [survey of the manor of Harmondsworth, 1587]

    
Staffordshire Record Office

  • D 603/N/31/2 [account of livestock and stores at Harmondsworth manor, c 1550–60]
  • D (W) 1734/3/2/15–27 [summary accounts of estates of the Paget family including Harmondsworth, 1546–60]
  • D 603/B/11/2 [lease of the tithes of Harmondsworth manor including tithe barn, 1738]

    
Winchester College Muniments (WCM)

  • Accounts of Harmondsworth manor: WCM 11501 [1386–7], 11502 [1397–8], 11503 [1406–7], 11504 [1450–51]
  • Bursars’ accounts: WCM 22078 [1394–5], 22080a [1396–7], 22083 [1397–8], 22084 [1398–9], 22100 [1418–19], 22103 [1424–5], 22104 [1426–7], 22111 [1434–5], 22151 [1484–5]
  • WCM 11335 [confirmation charter of Henry II to the Abbot and monks of Holy Trinity and St Katherine, Rouen, 1170–78]
  • WCM 11336 [undated copy of confirmation charter of Henry III to the Abbot and monks of Holy Trinity and St Katherine, Rouen]
  • WCM 11338 [exemplification of entry from Domesday Book relating to the manor of Harmondsworth, 1341]
  • WCM 10744 [extent of Harmondsworth manor, 1378]
  • WCM 11346 [copy of petition of William of Wykeham to the Pope for licence to annex to Winchester College the churches of Isleworth, Heston, Twickenham and Hampton, the churches of Hamble, Hound and West Worldham and the manor of Harmondsworth, c 1391]
  • WCM 11354 [copy of authoritative instructions handed by Wykeham to his agents in negotiation with the monastery of St Katherine, Rouen, c 1390–91]
  • WCM 11369 [memorandum concerning Wykeham’s intentions in founding his colleges and endowing them with possessions acquired from religious houses, c 1390–91]
  • WCM 11355 [letter describing progress of negotiations with the Abbot of St Katherine’s, Rouen, c 1391]
  • WCM 11356 [copy of indenture between the Abbot and Convent of St Katherine’s, Rouen, and attorneys of William of Wykeham concerning Harmondsworth, c 1391–2]
  • WCM 11376–77 [copy of licence by Richard II to the Abbot and Convent of St Katherine’s, Rouen, to grant to William of Wykeham the manor of Harmondsworth and other estates, 1391]
  • WCM 11380 [charter of alienation of manor of Harmondsworth to William of Wykeham, 1391]
  • WCM 11382 [acquittance by Abbot of St Katherine’s, Rouen, to Wykeham for 8,600 francs, 1391]
  • WCM 11381 [quitclaim of manor of Harmondsworth to William of Wykeham, 1392]
  • WCM 11379 [letter of attorney from Wykeham to his agents to receive and deliver all muniments relating to acquisition of Harmondsworth, 1392]
  • WCM 70a–b [petition of Warden and College concerning expenses of works at Winchester College and various estates including Harmondsworth, c 1395–1401]
  • WCM 78 [expenses of works at the College and various estates including Harmondsworth, 1402]
  • WCM 20151 [bond of John Downer, carpenter of Harrow Weald, and others (named) to Robert Thurbern, Warden of Winchester College, for 100 marks, 1434]
  • WCM 11393 [petition to Henry VI concerning exactions by royal household officials on manor of Harmondsworth, c 1440]
  • WCM 11394 [order by Henry VI to issue letters of protections to Winchester College concerning taking of goods in the manor of Harmondsworth, 1441]
  • WCM 11451 [valor (summary) of the manor of Harmondsworth, 1542]
  • WCM: uncatalogued letters of T Kirby, Albert Hartshorne and John Harvey in Winchester College Archives concerning Harmondsworth great barn.

Primary Sources (Published)

Bonnin, T (ed), Regestrum Visitationum Archiepiscopi Rothomagensis (Rouen, 1852)

Brewer, JS, Gairdner, J, and Brodie, RH, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, 22 vols (London, 1862–1937), vol 18 pt 2 (accessed 18 April 2018)

Deville, A, ‘Cartulaire de l’Abbaye de la Sainte-Trinité du Mont de Rouen’, appendix to BEC Guérard, Cartulaire de l’Abbaye de Saint-Bertin, vol III (Paris, 1840), 402–87 (accessed 18 April 2018)

Kirby, TF, ‘Charters of Harmondsworth, Isleworth, Twickenham and Hampton-on- Thames’, Archaeologia, 58:2 (1902), 341–58

Oschinsky, D (ed), Walter of Henley and Other Treatises on Estate Management and Accounting (Oxford, 1971)

Visual Sources

London Metropolitan Archives

  • Pen and wash view of the 15th-century manor house at Harmondsworth, 1794 (Lysons’ Environs of London Collection, vol V, 138; catalogue no. k1247547)
  • Pen and wash drawing of the east side of the barn, 1792 (Lysons’ Environs of London Collection, vol V, 138; catalogue no. k1248274; see above)
  • Photograph of the barn from the south-west, 1974 (London County Council Photograph Library, catalogue no. sSC_PHL_01_606_74_13302)

    
Royal Institute of British Architects

  • SKB283/4: Two sketches of interior details by George Gilbert Scott

    
Photographs in Historic England Archive

Items in the Historic England Archive at Swindon relating to Harmondsworth Barn include:

  • CC005203–6: Photographs of the barn, 23 May 1950
  • MP/HMD0001–3: Plan, cross-section and elevation of the barn, 1870–73

More details of these and many other items can be found in the online catalogue. Some material is not yet listed in the online catalogue, including a large collection of aerial photography; for a full search, please contact the search team.

Copies of images and documents can be ordered through the website or by contacting the archive. For details of current charges for these services see the archive price list.

Secondary Sources (Published)

Antiquarian Accounts

Hasted, E, History and Topography of the County of Kent, 12 vols (Canterbury, 1797–1801)

Pommeraye, JF, ‘Histoire de l’Abbaye de La Sainte Trinité-du-Mont de Rouen’, in Histoire de l'Abbaye de La Sainte Trinité-du-Mont, dite depuis de Sainte Catherine de Mont de Rouen (Rouen, 1662) (accessed 18 April 2018)

    
Other Published Books and Articles

Alcock, NW, et al, Recording Timber Buildings: An Illustrated Glossary, CBA Practical Handbook no. 5, revised edn (1996)

Bates, D, Normandy before 1066 (London and New York, 1982)

Bond, CJ and Weller, JB, ‘The Somerset barns of Glastonbury Abbey’, in The Archaeology and History of Glastonbury Abbey: Essays in Honour of the Ninetieth Birthday of CA Ralegh Radford, ed L Abrams and J Carley (Woodbridge, 1991), 57–87

Davis, V, William Wykeham: A Life (London, 2007)

Hartshorne, A, ‘The Great Barn, Harmondsworth’, Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, 4:3 (1873), 417–18 (accessed 18 April 2018)

Hewett, CA, English Historic Carpentry (Chichester, 1980)

Horn, W, ‘The Great Tithe Barn of Cholsey, Berkshire’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 22:1 (1963), 13–23

Horn, W, The Barns of the Abbey of Beaulieu at its Granges of Great Coxwell and Beaulieu St Leonards (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1965)

Impey, E, ‘The alien priory of St Winwaloe and Winnold House at Wereham, Norfolk’, Norfolk Archaeology, 44 (2004), 432–54

Impey, E and Miles, D, ‘The great barn at Harmondsworth, Middlesex’, English Heritage Historical Review (in preparation)

Jenkins, S, ‘John Betjeman's Heathrow’, in The Selling of Mary Davies and Other Writings (London, 1993), pp 63–70

Jerrold, W, Highways and Byways in Middlesex (London, 1909)

Kirby, JL, ‘The priory of Harmondsworth’, in Victoria County History: Middlesex, vol 1, ed JS Cockburn, HPF King and KGT McDonnell (London, 1969), 200–202 (accessed 18 April 2018)

Kirk, M, The Barn: Silent Spaces (London and New York, 1994)

Lysons, D and S, An Historical Account of those Parishes in the County of Middlesex which are not included in the Environs of London (London, 1800), 139

Matthew, D, The Norman Monasteries and their English Possessions (Oxford, 1962)

Mills, J, ‘Harmondsworth, manor farm’, in ‘Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1987’, ed SM Youngs, J Clark, DRM Gaimster and T Barry, Medieval Archaeology, 32 (1988), 225–314

Morgan, M, ‘The suppression of the alien priories’, History, new series 36 (1941–2), 204–12

Munby, J, ‘Great Coxwell Barn’, Archaeological Journal, supplement to vol 145 (1988)

Pearce, D, Conservation Today (London and New York, 1989)

Rigold, SE, ‘Some major Kentish barns’, Archaeologia Cantiana, 81 (1966), 1–30

Robinson, E and Worssam, B, ‘The geology of some Middlesex churches’, Proceedings of the Geological Association, 100:4 (1989), 595–603

Scott, GG, Remarks on Secular and Domestic Architecture, Present and Future (London, 1857)

Scott, GG, Lectures on the Rise and Development of Mediaeval Architecture, 2 vols (London, 1879)

Skinner, R, ‘Drawing from an indigenous tradition? George Gilbert Scott’s first design for Christchurch Cathedral, 1861–62’, Architectural History, 53 (2010), 245–70

Thorne, J, Handbook to the Environs of London; alphabetically arranged, containing an account of every town and village, and of all places of interest, within a circle of twenty miles round London (London, 1876)

Tyers, I and Hibberd, H, ‘Tree-ring dates from the Museum of London Archaeology Service: list 53’, Vernacular Architecture, 24 (1993), 50–54

Watkin, D, The Architecture of Basil Champneys (Cambridge, 1989)

Weller, J, Grangia & Orreum: The Medieval Barn – A Nomenclature (Bildeston, 1986)

Wyld, G, 1971, ‘Harmondsworth: manors and other estates’, in Victoria County History: Middlesex, vol 4, ed JS Cockburn and TFT Baker (London, 1971), 7–10 (accessed 18 April 2018)

Wyld, G, 1971, ‘Harmondsworth: economic and social history’, in Victoria County History: Middlesex, vol 4, ed JS Cockburn and TFT Baker (London, 1971), 10–15 (accessed 18 April 2018)

Youngs, SM, Clark, J, Gaimster, DRM and Barry, T (eds), ‘Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1987’, Medieval Archaeology, 32 (1988), 225–314

Secondary Sources (Unpublished)

Brady, NKD, ‘The sacred barn: barn-building in southern England, 1100–1550 – a study of grain storage technology and its cultural context’, PhD thesis, Cornell University (1996)

Pathy-Barker, C, ‘The 1989 excavations at Manor Court, Harmondsworth’, typescript (Museum of London, 1989)

McCurdy, P, ‘Harmondsworth Manor Barn: timber frame survey drawings’, unpublished report (1990)

McVeigh, SAJ, ‘Harmondsworth’s Glory’, privately printed (1979)

Mowl, T, ‘The Great Barn at Harmondsworth’, typescript (1988)

Shipp, A, ‘William of Wykeham and the founding of Winchester College’, PhD thesis, University of Exeter (2008)