TITHE BARN
As well as shaping the development of the town of Evesham, the abbey’s influence also extended to the surrounding countryside, as witnessed by the magnificent tithe barn at Middle Littleton, approximately 5 miles north-east of Evesham. Owned by the National Trust, this huge stone barn was probably built by abbot John de Brokehampton in the 13th century to store the tithes paid to the abbey by the villagers. Tithes, which were taxes that the laity had to pay to the church, and usually comprising one tenth of their earnings, were often paid in kind, and so barns, such as that at Middle Littleton, were needed to store the produce. The barn is 130ft long by 42ft wide (40 x 13m), its vast size testament to the wealth of the medieval abbey. Today, the barn is still impressive. “It’s a stunning building, and it’s a real ‘wow’ moment when you first see it as you come down the lane,” says the National Trust’s Katherine Alker. “The setting by the village church is lovely and so unspoilt that you could be standing there 500 years ago.” The interior of the barn is just as dramatic. “As there are no windows, it’s quite dark, but there are small holes in the walls that let in shafts of light, and so it’s very atmospheric,” she adds. A two-storey apple press has survived outside the barn, which Katherine says would have probably been used by the monks to crush the fruit paid by the villagers as part of their tithes. Stone steps lead up to the second floor, and the fruit would have been poured down a chute from here to a large stone, bowl-like structure. The fruit was then crushed by a revolving upright stone wheel, which was rotated around the bowl by an animal. The press is no longer working, but the National Trust has plans to restore it, and the field outside has already been replanted with apple trees. “This would have probably been an orchard in the past, so we have now replanted it with help from the local schoolchildren”, says Katherine. “As far as possible, I chose local and historic varieties of apples, such as ‘Worcester Pearmain’, an eating apple from the mid 1800s; ‘Catshead’, a cooking apple from the 1700s; and ‘Lord Hindlip’, which is an eating apple from the late 1800s.”