Barn Photos Added Today

July 11, 2023  •  Leave a Comment

San Mateo BarnSan Mateo BarnA San Mateo barn or schoolhouse photographed by Glenn Franco Simmons. Barns are often associated with livestock, but their purpose goes beyond that. Uses include the typical dairy farms from the area I'm from, the Redwood Coast of California where dairy ranching is big business in the Eel River Valley. There are also sheep barns, barns for minks and other small animals for fur, which are typically smaller than livestock and dairy bars; tobacco barns, sheep barns and potato barns, all taking on various shapes and sizes.

Where did the word “barn” originate?

“{It} comes from the Old English bere, for barley (or grain in general), and aern, for a storage place — thus, a storehouse for barley,” according to Wikipedia. “The word bere-ern, also spelled bern and bearn, is attested to at least 60 times in homilies and other Old English prose.

A San Mateo barn photographed by Glenn Franco Simmons.San Mateo BarnA San Mateo barn or schoolhouse photographed by Glenn Franco Simmons. “The related words bere-tun and bere-flor both meant threshing floor. Bere-tun also meant granary; the literal translation of bere-tun is ‘grain enclosure.’

“While the only literary attestation of bere-hus (also granary) comes from the Dialogi of Gregory the Great, there are four known mentions of bere-tun and two of bere-flor,” Wikipedia continued. “A Thesaurus of Old English lists bere-ærn and melu-hudern (‘meal-store house’) as synonyms for barn.”

Today’s barn evolved from what Wikipedia called “the three-aisled medieval barn, commonly known as tithe barn or monastic barn.”

San Mateo BarnSan Mateo BarnA San Mateo barn or schoolhouse photographed by Glenn Franco Simmons. “This, in turn, originated in a 12th-century building tradition, also applied in halls and ecclesiastical buildings,” according to Wikipedia. “In the 15th century several thousands of these huge barns were to be found in Western Europe.

“In the course of time, its construction method was adopted by normal farms and it gradually spread to simpler buildings and other rural areas.

“As a rule, the aisled barn had large entrance doors and a passage corridor for loaded wagons,” Wikipedia continued. “The storage floors between the central posts or in the aisles were known as bays or mows (from Middle French moye).”


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