Roof structure inside cruck barn, Burncliffe. Photo by Northumberland County Council, 1990.

Barn north west of Burncliffe, Tow House (west side). Grade II* listed building. Very rare example of a heather-thatched cruck barn, probably late 17th century. (1)

An attempt was made to carry out tree-ring analysis by English Heritage from 15 samples of the roof in work commissioned and funded by English Heritage as the building recorded as a Building At Risk in 2006 to refine the the stylistic dating to the 17th or 18th century. No grouping between any of the sampled timbers was observed and attempts to individually date the timbers also proved unsuccessful. The date of construction for the barn remains unknown. (2)

A detailed building survey was undertaken by Peter Ryder and Robin Dower on the Black Barn, Tow House prior to and during its restoration. The publication contains a detailed description of the building, drawings of the barn including the floor, a cross-section through the roof structure and discussion of the construction of the roof. It also looks at the building's function and places the building in its context, both within Tow House and with comparable examples in the North Pennines. (3)(4)

A combination of tree-ring analysis and radiocarbon wiggle-matching has resulted in the successful dating of seven timbers from this building. A single timber has been dated to the winter of AD 1590/91 with a further six having last ring dates compatible with felling in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. These results suggest construction occurred in the first quarter of the eighteenth century and incorporated potentially reused timber of the late-sixteenth century. (5)