Basing House Great Barn,
Hampshire

Basing House was the seat of Sir William Paulet, the first Marquess of Winchester and Lord Treasurer of England. The Great Barn was built in 1536 in preparation for a visit by King Henry VIII. It was designed to store the wheat and barley needed to provide his huge entourage with bread and ale.

The barn is 120 ft long and made of local hand-made red bricks. The walls are 3 feet thick with exterior buttresses. They support a magnificent queen post truss roof. It belongs to Hampshire County Council and has recently been restored with a new visitor centre in the smaller barn next to it.