The Covered Cattle Yard.

Covered Cattle Yard.

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Building #17. on your farm map is very unique in its design. Waldorf William Astor brought the idea from America, but the cupola in the center is much larger than I have ever seen. I was told by Edward Chaplin, one time farm manager, that this building was the first and only building ever built in Britain of this design, and the Astor's spared no expense in having it built, together with a farm drainage system that was was ahead of its time.

As boys, we use to climb up onto the roof and were able to get at sparrows nests for the eggs as they were classed as farm pests, and we were given a few pennies for each nest that we brought down from the ledges just inside the windows of the cupola.

Plot Layout.

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This plot plan is to give the reader some idea of how the building was laid out without confusing the drawing without beam and joist structure.

The straw bedding area was sloped towards the center and was a gravel base to aid natural drainage and was cleaned out after harvest each year so that the manure build up could be applied to the arable land prior to autumn ploughing.

This was the winter home for most of the Ayrshire herd as most of the fields that were used for grazing were water meadows and were water logged.

There were ample manger space so that hay and marrow stem kale, plus chopped mangolds. There were also ample drinking bowl outlets, so the cattle had pleanty of water.

Equine Riding Ring.

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As I have no side view photo of the covered cattle yard. I am using a photo of an American covered riding ring with a cupola dome. The side of the structure was open at the top half with a brick wall. This allows free movement of air through the structure and the hot air to escape throgh the cupola.

Structures A & B will be explained in my next blog. Again these were unique and ahead of their time in the UK.