17th Century Stone Barn

One of the jewels here at the museum is the stunning Grade II listed 17th century stone threshing barn. This has been carefully restored, and now houses displays on different aspects of farming such as root crops, cereals and fruit growing.

Come and discover something new within this wonderful building and see how barns were constructed over 300 years ago using natural materials.

Our Stone Barn is also host to public and corporate events, private parties and even weddings, bringing much life and laughter to this wonderful building. For more information, please visit our Venue Hire Section.

Bassingbourn Plough

One of the key attractions in the stone barn is the Bassingbourn Plough.  This very old wooden plough comes from Bassingbourn, where it ended its life there in the church tower!

A lot depended on a farmer managing to plough his fields in time for sowing, so ploughs were sometimes taken into churches to be blessed in a special church service.

For some reason, this plough had been taken up into the church tower, where it remained for many years.  The beam was sawn off, perhaps in order to get it up into the tower.

It was suggested in 1899 in a local publication (The East Anglian), that this plough should be handed over to a County Museum.  In 1999, this came to be, when the plough came to reside here at the Farmland Museum.

We do not know exactly how old this plough is, but compare it with the other wooden plough in the stone barn to see the differences.