This model depicts part of a typical threshing barn from the 17th century. The centre floor area has flagstones on which the sheaves of corn would be placed & beaten with a flail.
The buildings were designed with a pair of doors opposite each other in order to create a through draught which would help blow the chaff off the floor on a suitably windy day. the remaining grain & chaff would then be placed in a winnowing tray & shaken & tossed to remove the remainder of the unwanted bits of seed head & straw etc.
With the introduction of mechanical threshing machines many of these barns were turned to other uses
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EARLY THRESHING BARN
This model is part of the model Steam threshing Display at Bishops Lydeard Mill & museum, the size of the display case does not permit the huge cavernous size that many of these barns were built
The huge wooden doors at both ends of the barn open inwards to permit a heavily laden cart to unload the sheaves prior to threshing, this pair of doors are in four sections so that the draught can be adjusted according to the wind conditions
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1/12th Scale