Buckland abbey was founded in 1278 by Cistercian monks on land overlooking the tranquil Tavy valley. The monks were responsible for building the great barn, an impressive building which would have been a treasure store of produce grown on the large estate given to them by the then Countess of Devon, Amicia.
The abbey thrived for two hundred and fifty years until the dissolution of monasteries by Henry 8th and in 1541 the monarch sold Buckland to Sir Richard Grenville who converted it into a home, tearing much of it down, but unusually for the time the church was kept to become the main part of the house. Here is the great barn.
It’s far bigger than it looks on the outside!
Towards the entrance
Small shafts of light.
Huge doors were built to allow carts to drive in at one and out at another so that goods and produce could be unloaded in shelter.
The far end.
Wooden vaulting, the exterior would have been thatch.
The barn’s vast interior
An ancient apple press
I’ll be back tomorrow with some photos of the garden.
Lucid Gypsy 
I just love old buildings like this Gilly. I wonder what it would tell us if it could talk hey? Great photo’s and thanks for sharing hon. 🙂 *hugs*
a great example of a big stone building, amazing to me that it was for food storage, but then you needed food to get through winter when none could be grown … i guess the animals were kept in there too … the wooden vaulting is superb!
Enjoying the series!
Simply wonderful, Gilly. Interesting history
The stones on the walls are wonderful. Amazing wood ceiling. Looking forward to tomorrows post.
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
With all that open space I would like it would be cold. Yet an amazing place to live.
I can’t even imagine how they worked on getting the ceilings done. The amount of work in them is astonishing. Old buildings have so much chracter. This was a really nice post, Gilly.
Lots of inspiration there. If walls had ears……
My, what stories they could tell.
That barn is ginormous, and would take a lot of filiing. Things were really built to last in those days. 🙂
I can’t believe this is a b.a.r.n. How in heck this was managed is one thing, on the other, what a mindboggling storage space. Thanks for sharing, Gilly. I look forward to seeing the garden shots.
Amazing barn, and you’ve taken really great photos 🙂
What an amazing place. The architectural details are truly wonderful. Thanks.
That is quite an old stone building! Fascinating!
As I am typing I look above and see “What an amazing place ” !! Touché!!
Okay, book marked it !