“Oh my word! This immense cruciform building seems to have kept much of its real self. The timber roof is the original. The old relay switches now operate lights, and yet its architecture is all modern clarity and order”
Kevin McCloud
Church Hill Barn has been filmed for the latest series of Channel 4’s Grand Designs.
Grand Designs, hosted by Kevin McCloud is perhaps the foremost home building television show.
The featured episode follows a young couple on their journey to convert a 150 year old barn and scheduled monument in Bedfordshire. Church HiIl Barn was chosen as an exemplary self-build project to inspire the Grand Design’s couple.
The programme is the second instalment of the Spring 2025 series of Grand Designs for Channel 4.
Church Hill Barn is featured from 17.51 minutes into the programme. You can watch the television programme here.
Kevin discussed Church Hill Barn with David.
Church Hill Barn was built as part of the model farm movement. The movement encouraged modern farming methods and the barn was built with the intention of undertaking multiple farming activities under a single roof, protected from the elements.
This is evident in both the build quality, the arrangement of the spaces within the building and the scale of the roof.
Kevin admired the use of reclaimed materials, working with the features of the existing building and the awe inspiring scale of the spaces.
As part of the enabling works, two dilapidated farm buildings within the courtyard were demolished, thereby opening up the courtyard into a usable space and providing a large quantity of vintage bricks and slates for re-use within the barn.
David envisaged the spaces to be kept largely open and planned around the existing barn layout. Freestanding oversized joinery was introduced to delineate the different spacial functions and provide privacy. The aim being to keep the agricultural scale of the barn and prevent it from becoming overly domesticated.
Images : (Upper) Swinging chair in the barn, (Lower) Milking stalls (Photography, Steve Lancefield) / Kevin and David in the barn (Photography, DNA) / (Lower) Church Hill Barn timber structure detail (Photography, The Modern House). Swinging Chair by Ben Rousseau Studio.
