Groan. Technically speaking, the dark ages were prior to 1000 AD (and they aren’t considered to have been especially “dark” by modern historians).

Check the U.K. category link for a few more travel posts. And there will be at least half a dozen more, I think — I took a fair number of pictures this summer.

Anyway, if they housed some livestock in these behemoth barns they could officially be called ‘sacred cows’. (grin)

What Rachel said. Thanks so much for the excellent contextualization. I know just enough about the Middle Ages to be dangerous, but clearly I need to read more. (For readers of this thread who are curious about what the Peasants’ Revolt entailed, the first episode in Terry Jones’ “Medieval Lives” series offers a painless and enjoyable primer.)

What a great insight into how tithe barns were used (and abused) – thank you! And for the Coggeshall recommendation too.

You’d love Grange Barn at Coggeshall in Essex,which is even older – 12th century. Doesn’t look anything like as impressive from outside, because it had to be completely restored when the National Trust got hold of it in the 1990s, but the timber structure inside is beautiful.

Ah-ha! How interesting that the tithe barn should’ve gotten into a Bible translation.

By the early 14th century, of course, stained glass windows were the usual thing in churches, But the church was sacred space, while this was space set aside for the support of the sacred, so perhaps the cross-shaped openings to the sky would’ve been seen a bit like the brand of the owner on a free-ranging cow or sheep.

I thought the “storehouses” (I do prefer Wycliffe’s “my berne” to the King James’s “the storehouse”) were only figurative after Bible times. Maybe those crosses are an attempt at that verse’s “windows of heaven.”