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Presentation drawing for a hen house, 5 July 1794

Soane presented his design for the hen house to the client on 4 July 1794, along with a drawing of the farmyard (drawing 37) and five designs for a dairy.

The hen house is made of timber. It is ornamented with a classical composition of mouldings 'mitred round angles' and its five ranges are arranged into a symmetrical composition. In Georgian model farms, John Martin Robinson writes: 'It is symptomatic of the seriousness with which farm buildings were treated in the late eighteenth century that the august architect of the Bank of England did not consider the design of nesting boxes for hens beneath his attention.' (J.M. Robinson, p.103)

The nesting boxes are covered by a system of two flaps, with one attached to hinges high on the back wall and extending forward to form a lean-to, and the others hung on hings on top of the boxes and lying flat. Each box has a round-headed window with double sliding doors perforated with air holes. Inside is a shelf to the keep eggs after they have been removed from the nests. The floors are raised on 'bearers'. The boxes vary between 1 feet 8 inches and 2 feet deep.

The key refers to a 'garnet', a hinge in the shape of a side-ways T, 'the upright part being nailed to the support, and the horizontal to the door, shutter' (Oxford English Dictionary).

Made of timber, the hen house has not been preserved.
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