Editing Harmondsworth (section)

==Great Barn==
[[File:Harmondsworth Great Barn east exterior.jpg|thumb|left|The Great Barn in Harmondsworth, dating back to the 14th or 15th century]]
[[File:Harmondsworth Great Barn interior looking north.jpg|thumb|Interior of the Great Barn looking north]]
The other notable historic building in Harmondsworth is the Grade I-[[listed building|listed]] [[Harmondsworth Barn|Harmondsworth Great Barn]], Britain's largest [[barn]].<ref>Nails are only used on the sides.</ref> On the site of an earlier great barn, it was put up between 1425 and 1427 on land bought by [[William of Wykeham]], Bishop of Winchester, in 1391, to endow his colleges [[Winchester College]] and [[New College, Oxford]]. It is the largest extant timber-framed building in England and was described by the English poet [[John Betjeman]] as the "Cathedral of Middlesex".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/harmondsworth-barn/history/ |title=History of Harmondsworth Barn |publisher=English Heritage |access-date=2016-06-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://village.vossnet.co.uk/a/awharris/overview.htm |title=Harmondsworth |work=village.vossnet.co.uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080224092452/http://village.vossnet.co.uk/a/awharris/overview.htm |archive-date=24 February 2008 |access-date=21 June 2016}}</ref> As of January 2012 the barn is owned by [[English Heritage]].<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16776801 | work=BBC News | title=Medieval Harmondsworth Barn bought by English Heritage | date=30 January 2012}}</ref>

A similar barn, built 25 years later in 1451–53, but shorter (with eight bays as opposed to the Harmondsworth barn's 12), is at [[Old Burghclere]], Hampshire. This monumental barn was also built on land acquired by [[William of Wykeham]]. While the Harmondsworth barn was part of Winchester College's endowment the Burghclere barn passed to the family of [[Fiennes]] who had married the heiress of Wykeham's great-nephew heir. It now is part of the [[Highclere Castle|Highclere]] estate belonging to [[George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon|Lord Carnarvon]].<ref>local knowledge & ''A History of the County of Hampshire'', Volume IV, edited by William Page, London, 1911, pp. 277–281.</ref>