A bank barn or banked barn is a style of barn noted for its accessibility, at ground level, on two separate levels. Often built into the side of a hill, or bank, both the upper and the lower floors area could be accessed from ground level, one area at the top of the hill and the other at the bottom. The second level of a bank barn also could be accessed from a ramp if a hill was not available.

Examples of bank barns can be found in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, in Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, in the Dordogne

Dordogne

Dordogne is a départment in south-west France. The départment is located in the region of Aquitaine, between the Loire valley and the High Pyrénées named after the great river Dordogne that runs through it...

 in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and in Umbria

Umbria

Umbria is a region of modern central Italy. It is one of the smallest Italian regions and the only peninsular region that is landlocked.Its capital is Perugia.Assisi and Norcia are historical towns associated with St. Francis of Assisi, and St...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, amongst other places.

Bank barns in the United Kingdom

Bank barns are especially common in the upland areas of Britain, in Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

 and Cumbria

Cumbria

Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...

 in northern England and in Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

 in the south-west.

History

The origins of bank barns in the UK are obscure. The bank barn had made its first appearance in Cumbria by the 1660s on the farms of wealthy farmers: here farmers bought drove cattle from Scotland and fattened them over winter before selling them in spring. The bank barn at Townend Farm, Troutbeck

Troutbeck, South Lakeland

Troutbeck is a village in South Lakeland district in Cumbria. It is north of Windermere town, to the west of the A592 road. It is a conservation area and includes the National Trust property of Townend.-Village Amenities:...

 in former Cumberland

Cumberland

Cumberland is a historic county of North West England, on the border with Scotland, from the 12th century until 1974. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974 and now forms part of Cumbria....

 was built for the prominent Browne family in 1666. The great majority of bank barns were built in Cumbria between 1750 and 1860, and the last were built just before the First World War

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

Design

Usually stone built, British bank barns are rectangular buildings. They usually have a central threshing area with hay

Hay

Hay is grass, legumes or other herbaceous plants that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing livestock such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. Hay is also fed to pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs...

 or corn

Cereal

Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...

 (cereal) storage bays on either side on the upper floor; and byres, stables, cartshed or other rooms below. The threshing barn on the upper floor was entered by double doors in the long wall approached from a raised bank: these banks could be artificially created. Opposite the main doors was a small winnowing door which opened high above the farmyard level. A common arrangement had an open-fronted single bay cartshed below the threshing floor, with stables on one side and a cow-house on the other. The entrances to these lower floor rooms were protected from above in many cases by a continuous canopy or pentise carried on timber or stone beams which are cantilevered from the main wall. Brick-built bank barns are less common.

In the 1660s, Sir Daniel Fleming of Rydal Hall

Rydal Hall

Rydal Hall is an early 19th century Grade II listed historic house on the outskirts of the village of Rydal, Cumbria in the Lake District, England. The house is opposite Rydal Mount, home of the poet William Wordsworth...

 in the Lake District

Lake District

The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...

 housed 44 cattle in his 74 feet (22.6 m) long bank barn at Low Park. The cattle faced the side walls and backed on to a central manure passage. In other bank barns in Cumbria the entrances, in the side walls, gave access to a cow-house, stable and cartshed; some 19th century examples have four-horse stables, root houses (for storage of root crops for fodder) and feeding and dung passages for the cows.

As well as the true bank barns that occur in a small concentration in Devon, a variation on the bank barn is also found in Devon and Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 where the upper floor is accessed by external stone steps rather than the hillside or a ramp.

Terminology

The architectural historian Ronald Brunskill

Ronald Brunskill

Dr. Ronald William Brunskill is an academic who was Reader in Architecture at the University of Manchester. He is an authority on the history of architecture and particularly on British vernacular architecture....

 states that, although the British examples are older, the term "bank barn" is an imported American term "to describe a type of farm building which is so common in certain parts of Britain that it has developed no descriptive term of its own".

Bank barns in the United States

Bank barns were a popular 19th century barn style in the United States. These structures were sometimes referred to as "basement barns" because of their exposed basement story. Regionally, this barn style could be known by other names as well, including, in Vermont, Yankee barn, which is a name more often associated with English barns. In the United States, the upper floor was a loft

Loft

A loft can be an upper story or attic in a building, directly under the roof. Alternatively, a loft apartment refers to large adaptable open space, often converted for residential use from some other use, often light industrial...

 and the lower a stable

Stable

A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals...

 area. With William Penn's promise of freedom and inexpensive land, many settlers came to Pennsylvania. Among these settlers were the Germans, who began to build bank barns on their land. Many other settlers followed this practice and it was soon the most common type of barn Pennsylvania during the colonial era.

Design

The design of a bank barn allowed for wagons to enter directly into the hay loft, eliminating the need to move hay from the loft to the stables. Below the stables a basement usually acted as a manure

Manure

Manure is organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Manures contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogen, that are trapped by bacteria in the soil...

 collection area. Many bank barns simply have a small incline leading up to the loft area as opposed to a ramp

Wheelchair ramp

A wheelchair ramp is an inclined plane installed in addition to or instead of stairs. Ramps permit wheelchair users, as well as people pushing strollers, carts, or other wheeled objects, to more easily access a building....

. Some bank barns are constructed directly into existing hillsides while others are fitted with built up earthen and stone areas to create the trademark bank. The design is similar to English barn

English barn

The English barn, or three bay barn, is a barn style that was most popular in the northeast region of the United States. New barns in this style were constructed for over a century, from the 1770s through the 1900s.-Design:...

s except for bank and basement aspects. The basement

Basement

__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...

space could be utilized for animals while the area above, easily accessed by wagon because of the bank, could be used for feed and grain storage. Bank barns can be thought of as English barns raised up on an exposed full basement.