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. Tithe barns, graneries, and offices in the U.S.A. went 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
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.

Tithe barn

See also