Alasdair Boden: Sense of history prompts barn restoration

One of our farthest fields has a small field barn along the boundary.

The family who farmed here before us have loving tales about how they used to cut hay in the summer and store it in that barn ready for winter. 

It’s not a big barn, only 4x3m, but back then it was good enough. Now, however, its narrow entrance and small floor space means it’s useful for next to nothing.

See also: Alasdair Boden – ‘accidental’ farmers bring fresh ideas

About the author

Alasdair Boden

Having been brought up in Kendal, Alasdair Boden returned to the Lake District in 2019 when he and his wife, Heather, bought a holiday cottage business. The 37-year-old describes himself as an “accidental farmer’ having later acquired the 40ha historically connected to the enterprise.

Read more articles by Alasdair Boden

We can’t store machinery in it and it wouldn’t get close to Red Tractor approval for housing, even chickens.

There’s a bigger problem though – it’s a ruin. Two-thirds of the south-facing wall has fallen down, allowing winter storms to buckle the north gable.

We got a quote to fix it: £50,000. For something that could, at a push, hold 250 small bales, it’s far from financially worth it.

But sometimes money is just one of the values. 

This barn has stood on that land since the first mapping we can find from the 1700s.

If you have no space for nostalgia in the Lake District, then you’ll sell the stone walls for a fair profit and replace the Herdwicks for Texels.

However, there is also a sense of custodianship of the land. We are just a flittering part of its deep history.

But am I going to pay £50,000 for an old barn that’s practically useless? Of course not.

This is where the Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA) comes to the rescue. 

LDNPA has a mandate to secure the future of the Lake District heritage through projects such as the preservation of old stone barns.

So this winter, some lads from Sedbergh have been battling the bleak weather to restore this tiny piece of history.

The LDNPA hasn’t coughed up the whole amount – we’re still paying 20%. But for that we are preserving this beautiful building for another 300 years.  

I recently got a parking fine from a LDNPA car park. My hope is that some of that £100 goes to fund future barn restorations, but we’ll see.