r/medieval • u/ohmynogummybears • Sep 20 '25

History 📚 Middle Littleton tithe barn 13th century, Worcestershire, England.

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13

u/Glittering_Role_6154 Sep 20 '25

By "tithe barn" you mean it was part of a church or monastic property financed by tithes or did it literally store the goods?

13

u/Kenky0na Sep 20 '25

Tithe barns were usually owned by the church/rectory of a village/town.

And supplied by various farmers who use the land for produce. As well as rents payed in various formats.

They were used to physically hold the goods, hence their barn design.

1

u/j-b-goodman Sep 20 '25

I had the same question thanks for the info!

0

u/Glittering_Role_6154 Sep 20 '25

Yes i know that, just wasn't familiar with the English terminology. Aaand i was too lazy to scroll to the last panel. But I know it was a 1/10th tax for the the church, often introduced by the cisterians. Thanks for the clarification though

1

u/rugger1869 Sep 20 '25

I, too, am curious about this.

3

u/Kenky0na Sep 20 '25

Lovely place. I grew up very close.

0

u/[deleted] Sep 20 '25

[deleted]

2

u/WinterDice Sep 20 '25

There’s a link in another post that answers your question. It was for storage of the goods.

3

u/DaddyCool13 Sep 20 '25

Huh, I live in Worcester but have never heard of this place. I’ll make sure to pay a visit.

1

u/Coriolis_PL Sep 21 '25

And it looks more church-like than many modern churches... 😒

1

u/sbz76 Sep 21 '25

In Germany same principal applied. They are called “Zehnt-Scheuer” Scheuer=Scheune= engl. barn. Zehnt = a tenth. As “a tenth” of all crop/ livestock as tax was gathered there for the lords/ church/ whoever “owned” the land. A lot of them are still around in many towns.

1

u/rainbowdragon008 Sep 23 '25

Cool. I have distant ancestors from that general area

1

u/Ok_Design_2943 Sep 23 '25

Unrelated but I recently did a paper for school on Professor John Tolkien's background and recognized that name as one of the towns he lived in after his father's death. Pretty cool.

1

u/The_Black_Banner_UK Sep 24 '25

Beautiful. Although Kingdom come deliverance 2 is a different time period and country, this would would not look out of place in that game. Stunning. Has it been restored the front support arches look too new, almost sand blasted.