Denny Abbey was founded in 1159 as a Benedictine Monastery. It then became a retirement home for the Knights Templar and after their suppression, a Franciscan nunnery. After the dissolution of the abbey, it became a farm. In the 1960s the Abbey ruins were taken over by English Heritage and the farm became the Museum of Farmland Life.
The barn of the farm displays agricultural paraphanalia related to farming in the Fens. It is an aisled barn with flint walls and a half-hipped, corrugated iron roof which probably replaced the original thatch and, as in so many cases, is likely to have saved the barn from destruction.
Inside, the aisle trusses are made from rather waney wood as is typical in East Anglia where timber was at a premium. There are collar beams between the common rafters with raked struts supporting the purlins. The main tie beam was braced by pairs of arched braces to the aisle posts, some of which remain in situ. The position of the others is indicated by the mortises in the tie-beams and aisle posts.
