Happy birthday barn

March 30 saw the birthday of the Horsham Barn! It may seem this part of the Museum is a part of Causeway House but that’s far from reality.

Indeed, the Barn was a part of the Hills Farm Estate, a lost very grand country house.

In 1770 the 9th Viscount Irwin, who owned Hills Place, paid Capability Brown to design a landscape garden at Hills Place. 

However, the Capability Brown garden was short-lived and when the Viscount and his wife had both passed away in 1807 the estate was sold and divided up.  By 1820 the lakes had been filled in and the gardens dug up and returned to farming use.

By 1977 the whole plot was sold off for development and all of the buildings were demolished.  

Horsham Museum took on the challenge of reassembling the barn behind Causeway House.  

It was stored until 1982 when it was rebuilt and completed in 1983, opening to the public on 30 March 1984.

For more on this story see the Museum blog.