The Tithe Barn Trust, a Landbeach-based charity and volunteer not-for-profit group, launched their ‘Sponsor a Sheaf’ campaign over the weekend.

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The Trust - which aims to save and restore the Grade II Listed Tithe Barn for community use - estimates it will need five tonnes of locally-sourced hand-drawn longstraw to re-thatch the roof.

The Trust is hoping to raise an extra £75,000 towards “urgently” re-thatching and strengthening the timber frame.

Chairman Gemma O’Shea said: “The barn has been standing since medieval times and we can’t allow ourselves to be the generation that loses it forever.

“The barn reflects the agricultural heritage of East Anglia and is an important part of our local community history.

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“The Tithe Barn would have been used to store tithes, a tax which was a tenth of all crops, the contributions being stacked in the barn for winter threshing and storage.”

From October 22 to 29 the Tithe Barn Trust will work with the Fen Edge Archaeology group (FEAG) to undertake a geophysical survey of the land surrounding the barn.

To sponsor a sheaf visit www.totalgiving.co.ukmypageTitheBarnTrust