ÿþ<head> <TITLE>The Derelict Miscellany :: Hangman Barn</TITLE> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="barn, derelict, hangman, hang, man, hanging, horsham, posessionhouse, execution, judge, jeffries, death, timber, shipley, barns green"> <META NAME="description" CONTENT="Standing just off the footpath near Posessionhouse Lane, Itchingfield, Hangman Barn presents an appropriately gaunt edifice. This barn was, according to local lore, the place of execution for those condemned to death. "> <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="ALL"> <link rel="icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"> </head> <body link="#668b8b" bgcolor="darkgray" text="000000" vlink="#668b8b"> <center> <table width=1044> <tr><td> <table width=1044 cellspacing=0> <tr background="gam_print_ordsvywat-sun-171278517207606.jpg"> <td background="gam_print_ordsvywat-sun-171278517207606.jpg" align=right><A HREF="index.html"><img src=1.jpg border=0></a></td><td background="gam_print_ordsvywat-sun-171278517207606.jpg" align=center> <a indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none" HREF="index.html"><h1>T H E &nbsp D E R E L I C T &nbsp M I S C E L L A N Y</H1></A> R e f l e c t i o n s &nbsp o n &nbsp f o r g o t t e n &nbsp a n d &nbsp a b a n d o n e d &nbsp s p a c e s <br><br> </td><td background="gam_print_ordsvywat-sun-171278517207606.jpg" align=left><A HREF="index.html"><img src=2.jpg border=0></a></td></tr></table> </td></tr> <tr><td bgcolor="#EEE9E9"> <center> <a indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none" href="http://derelictmisc.org.uk/index.html">{home} </a> &nbsp &nbsp <a indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none" href="http://derelictmisc.org.uk/menu2.html">{menu} </a> &nbsp &nbsp <a indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none" href="aboot.html">{about} </a> &nbsp &nbsp <a indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none" href="cont.html">{contact} </a> &nbsp &nbsp <a indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none"href="http://twitter.com/DerelictMisc" target="blank">{twitter}</a> &nbsp &nbsp <a indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none" href="disc.html">{disclaimer}</a> &nbsp &nbsp <a href="#" STYLE="text-decoration: none" onClick="window.open('veh/index.html','', 'width=589,height=577,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"> {rusty old cars}</A> &nbsp &nbsp <a href="#" STYLE="text-decoration: none" onClick="window.open('misc/menu.html','', 'width=870,height=482,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"> {miscellany}</A> &nbsp &nbsp <a indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none" href="links.html">{links}</a> &nbsp &nbsp <a indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none" href="contrib.html">{contribute} </a> </td></tr><tr><td bgcolor=#EEE9E9><table width=100% bgcolor="#EEE9E9"> <td width=13></td><td> <center> <br><u><font size="5">Hangman Barn</font></u><br></center> <b>What:</B> Timber-frame barn <BR> <b>Where:</B> Itchingfield, West Sussex <BR> <b>Built:</b> Unknown <BR> <b>Architect:</b> Unknown <BR> <b>Abandoned:</b> Unknown <BR> <b>Listed:</b> No <BR><b>Visited:</b> 2007<BR> <b>Last Known Condition:</b> Derelict <br><b>Page Updated:</b> February 2011<BR> <br> Standing just off the footpath near Posessionhouse Lane, Itchingfield, Hangman Barn presents an appropriately gaunt edifice. How the barn got its gruesome name is uncertain, but it has been called thus since at least 1844 [Tithe Map and Apportionment]. Local folklore offers several explanations: <br> One legend holds that it was the place of execution for those sentenced to death by a court of law held at nearby Possessionhouse Farm. The condemned would be stood on a waggon with a noose around their neck. When the time came, the executioner bid the carthorse walk on and the criminal would be left behind, 'hanged by the neck until dead.' A beam in the transept still bears a notch said to be the rub-mark left by the rope (Third row down, picture 3). <br> A similar story relates that the barn was the execution site for a band of smugglers caught by local vigilantes and imprisoned in the Queen's Head inn at Barns Green. Wm. Albery [<I>A Millennium of Facts</I>, 1947] says that the notorious Rapley Gang hid their loot in an unnamed barn in the area, but that they met their end by hanging at Petworth Gaol. <br> The simplest explanation however is that a 'wretched wayfarer' unknown in these parts put an end to his misery here one night and the name stuck. <br><br> <center> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="From the stile." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman.jpg" border=1> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman2.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="The barnyard." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman2.jpg" border=1> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman1.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="The barn" height=164 src="agricultural/hangman1.jpg" border=1> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman3.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="Barn showing braces." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman3.jpg" border=1> </A> <br> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman4.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="Haystack and loft." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman4.jpg" border=1> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman5.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="west end." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman5.jpg" border=1> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman6.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="From the hayloft." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman6.jpg" border=1> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman7.jpg','', 'width=480,height=640,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="From the hayloft." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman7.jpg" border=1> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/N0854.jpg','', 'width=480,height=640,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="Rafters." height=164 src="agricultural/N0854.jpg" border=1> </A> <br> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman8.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="From the hayloft." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman8.jpg" border=1> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman9.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="Destroyed west end." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman9.jpg" border=1> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman10.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="Beam showing supposed rope mark." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman10.jpg" border=1> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman11.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="Binder." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman11.jpg" border=1> </A> <br> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman12.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="Decorative vent in the side of the barn." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman12.jpg" border=1> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman13.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="Room under the hayloft." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman13.jpg" border=1> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman14.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="Back of the Barn." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman14.jpg" border=1> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman15.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="East end." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman15.jpg" border=1> </A> <br> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman16.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="Barnyard pond." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman16.jpg" border=1> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman19.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="Unidentified machinery, could be a muckspreader." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman19.jpg" border=1> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman17.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="Gears and wheels." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman17.jpg" border=1> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('agricultural/hangman18.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"><img alt="Lainchbury & Sons were a small agricultural engineering company based in Kingham, Oxfordshire." height=164 src="agricultural/hangman18.jpg" border=1> </A> <br></center> <br> The barnyard is very overgrown and is enclosed by a brick wall. A stone lined drain runs underneath and can be seen at the east side, outside the wall. On the west side of the yard is a seven bay cattle shed with a half hipped roof and on the north side is the barn itself. This consists of a timber frame resting on a polychrome brick base. It is missing its west end and all of its weatherboarding and is partly supported by old telegraph poles to prevent collapse. The main body is covered by a purlin roof clasped by raking queen posts against the underside of the principal rafters. There is a hipped gable over the north door to accommodate for the change in level, as the roof is lower on this side. There is a hayloft at the east end and below it are two rooms, one being occupied by a modern hay binder and the other possibly a stable or cowshed. On the north side either side of the door there are two individually accessed rooms of unknown purpose. <br> The historic structure's future is as yet uncertain. <br> <br><center></font><b> <a href="index.html">Home..</a></b><br> <br> </td><td width=13></td></tr></table> </TD></TR><TR><TD bgcolor="#EEE9E9" ALIGN=CENTER> <font size=1>Derelict Miscellany. Website &amp; content Copyright D. A. Gregory 2005-Present unless stated to be otherwise.</font> </td></tr></table> </font> </body> </html>