Barns with Chimneys
A barn with a chimney makes little sense – unless the barn is for sleeping in.
The example in #1 is “Bob's Hovel” on the Rothersthorpe to Kislingbury Road outside Northampton, at SP7005851. #2 shows it underneath the ‘L' of KISLINGBURY on the 1890 map. No farm buildings nearby, but there's a short lane from the bothy passing two long fields. These were probably used to rest the cattle after their journey to Blisworth Station. They would be fattened there for 2-3 months before being sold at Northampton Market2, and the drover in charge would live with them till they were ready.
A barn with a chimney in the grounds of an old inn makes even less sense. “No room at the inn” comes to mind. But I've found two: #3 is in Swanbourne, opposite what used to be “The Boot Inn”; the chimney is at the back of the picture (and virtually invisible; sorry). #4 is on Little London Green, Oakley, Bucks, where The White Hart used to be.
Both of these were for drovers too3, on more of a short-term basis. Why?
Because cattlemen were rarely invited to sleep inside an inn: they stank too much.
1 Now almost on the bank of the M1. Bob Franklin was found dead there in 1959. I must find the newspaper article referring to it.
2 One forgets that people used to like plenty of fat on their meat before the age of large machinery: they needed the calories it provided.
3 Swanbourne and Oakley are both on important drove-routes.
