The last remaining barn in the Cold Creek Conservation Area shares a history with many old Ontario barns. It has been remodeled, renovated and adaptively reused over the years to
meet changing agricultural needs and circumstances and may even have been moved from its original location.

It probably started its life as a typical enlarged English Wheat Barn consisting as it does of four bays, and measuring 60.5’in length by 34.5’ in width. It is framed with hand hewn and squared timbers having mortise and tenon joints, secured by
wooden pins. It has five bents one of which is a rare example of a swing beam, measuring approximately 34’ in length and 13” x 18” at its widest point. The swing beam adds an entirely North American element to the English Barn, allowing for the extension
of the threshing floor by a bay with mows overhead for the storage. The barn floor is wooden with some planks measuring from 12” to 16” in width. It has a traditional gable roof with raked queen post supports, but without a ridge piece.

The framing of the building is truly impressive and unique with four of the plates and purlins each being 60 feet length. To achieve this length and required width, they would have had to have been cut from enormous trees found only in a primeval
forest. As noted earlier the swing beam is of an awesome size, dating from the time when nearby forests produced trees of great size.

Since English Wheat Barns were mostly built during Upper Canada’s “wheat boom” to facilitate the hand process of separating grain from the chaff prior to the introduction of field thrashers and, because of the quality and dimensions of the timbers used in its construction, it was probably built between 1840 and 1860. The style of the English Wheat Barn, however,
dates back to Elizabethan times and was one of the first European architectural styles to be introduced into Upper Canada. This, combined with the existence of a rare swing beam bent, makes this building a truly unique and valuable community heritage asset.

The exterior of the present building and its fieldstone basement or byre, however are more recent additions to the barn. Even the current location of the barn is suspect. This is because the prime purpose of an English Wheat Barn was to make use of the wind draft caused by opening two wagon doors on opposite
sides of the barn. The procedure was simple, first the wheat was beaten with a threshing flail on the drive or winnowing floor, which broke the grain and separated the seeds from the husks. Alternatively, in some instances, as in the case of the Cold Creek
barn, an extra bent was originally added to the traditional
three bay barns, and a “swing beam” installed. The swing beam was designed to carry the heavy overhead mows and thus leave a clear unobstructed floor. In the middle a small post or socket was set up to which a stout wooden log with tapered pegs was attached. An ox was harnessed to the other end and driven round and round. In the meantime men kept turning over the sheaves to make sure most, if not all, the grain was released from the husks and chaff.

Separating the grain from the unwanted chaff was done on a windy day. The most efficient barns were built on knolls or on a high rise in the ground to catch the prevailing wind. The huge barn doors at either end of the threshing floor were swung open and used to funnel the wind through the barn openings. The
threshed grain was scooped up in a winnowing tray or sieve and tossed into the air. The lighter chaff was carried away by the wind, while the heavier grain fell back into the tray. The same basic principal is used today in modern combines.

There would have been little benefit to situating the barn on the lea side of a hill where the present barn is located. What probably happened was that when the wheat market went into serious decline in the 1870s, most farmers turned their attention to mixed farming. While wheat barns were excellent for storing feed grain they lacked a cattle stable or byre. The solution was to either jack them up and place a basement or stable below or, as in the case of the Cold Creek barn, build a foundation into a hillside close by and slide the barn down the hill to its new location. This move would probably have taken place in the wintertime when the ground was frozen and the building could be moved, more easily.

The new location of the barn would have had several advantages for a mixed farming operation. The front of the barn would then be almost at grade level allowing easy wagon access to the barn for feed storage on the upper level. Similarly the rear of the barn would allow cattle level access to the basement byre below. In addition, the cattle would be sheltered from winter winds on the lower slope behind the barn. This design raised the ergonomics and amiability to the livestock by adapting the barn to the local climatic conditions.

This method of building a barn into a hillside was widely used by the German and German-Swiss farmers in Pennsylvania and has come to be known as a “Pennsylvania” style barn. The only feature lacking is the existence of a forebay at the rear of the barn which would have been redundant in this instance. Vertical wood siding would have replaced the former clapboard siding to allow “a finger’s width” between each vertical plank to provide air circulation, to assist in the hay curing process.

With aging barns becoming more or less obsolete in today’s farming operations; the next use to which the barn was put was a heritage preservationalist’s dream. When the Conservation Authority took over the property some forty years ago they decided to adaptively reuse the barn as an administrative building and workshop. The barn was winterized and the
exterior walls extensively rebuilt with wooden baton strips. The doors formally used to hoist hay to the loft were closed and plumbing facilities plus a new heating system, were installed. Anew roof was put in place and a large storage shed was added to the lower level. Today, however, the building is no longer used for this purpose and is more or less vacant and awaiting yet another use.

Understanding the various changes that have taken place in the barn to meet changing circumstances provides a historical and visible example of the ingenuity of the people who worked the land and the adaptability and versatility of barns in general.
Possibly it might now be preserved and converted into an interpretive center to show the evolution and cultural influences shaping farm buildings in Ontario.

Mr. Hulley is a built heritage historian and photographer.
He is a retired Accredited Appraiser of the Appraisal
Institute of Canada, Fellow of the Realtors Institute and
Member of the American Society of Real Estate Counsellors. He is currently President of the Brampton Branch of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario and a former Member of the City of Brampton’s Heritage Board.

The last remaining barn on the Cold Creek Conservation
Area shares a history with many old Ontario barns.
Photo by Robert Hulley

Floor plan of Cold Creek English Wheat Barn, probably built
between 1840 and 1860 during Upper Canada’s wheat boom.
Drawing by Robert Hulley

It is framed with hand hewn beams and posts cut from enormous trees found only in a primeval forest.
Photo by Robert Hulley

The barn contains a rare “swing beam” allowing the threshing floor to be extended by a bay with mows overhead, leaving a clear unobstructed floor below.
Photo by Robert Hulley

With the decline of the wheat market many farms converted to mixed farm operations. It is believed that the wheat barn was converted and moved from its original location to another on the lea side of the hill.
Pencil and ink drawing by Dean K. Gowland

A stone byre or cattle stable was built under the barn in its new location which allowed farm animals easy access to the lower level and shelter from the winter winds.
Photo by Robert Hulley