1327 Richard of Wallingford returns from confirmation as Abbot of St Albans by the Pope at Avignon to St Albans ‘landing in England, he came to his Manor of Crokesly for rest and repose, here he found himself afflicted by a severe pain in his left eye, which brought on a total blindness.’ (Newcome Pg 215)
1340 Black Death.
1381 Poll Tax protests, Wat Tyler murdered by Mayor of London in presence of Richard II.
1396-1401 Abbot John Moote. Croxley Great Barn built.
1398 Harpendenbury Farm: Kinsbourne Barn built by Westminster Abbey (similar to Croxley)
1399 Richard II deposed & killed in prison. Henry IV (Bolingbroke) declared King.
1400 Geoffrey Chaucer believed to have died - no record of his death, no grave, and no commemoration.
1520’s Cardinal Wolsey became Abbot of St Albans. Sometime resident at The Moor whilst Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII until dismissed 1529.
1536-40 Dissolution of monasteries.
1538? Manor of Croxley leased by Crown for 44 years to William Baldwin.
1547 Bequeathed to sons Thomas & Richard.
1557 Manors of Croxley and of Snells Hall purchased by John Keys (Latin: Caius) from Queen Mary (1553-58) for £461 = 20yrs annual rent value.
1557 Caius obtained Charter of Foundation for Gonville & Caius College and donated Manor of Croxley to the College.
1570 John Caius wrote ‘Treatise on Englishe Dogges’ first ref to characteristics of Border Collie.
1640’s Cromwell’s troops allegedly billeted in barn. (evidence welcome)
1692-1868 Farm tenanted by Bovington family (?)
1796 James Bovington in arrears of Tithe rent to John Alexander, Vicar of Rickmansworth.
1804 Legal action: Bovington v Strutt.
1868 Mrs Bovington on G&C ‘Quit Register’- now ‘T Warwick Esq.’ and ‘Shirley West.’
1875 George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) b 1819 lived for a short while at 'The Elms' Rickmansworth, not far from the ancient Barn, whilst there she wrote 'Daniel Deronda'.
1894 A pair of cottages built close to barn for £365.
1900? Tenant Charles Samson (watercress grower)
1909 Visited by surveyor for Royal Commission on Historic Monuments- photographed, Report published 1910 by HMSO.
1912 Photographs of barn used as illustration in ‘Biog History of G&C College’ Vol IV.
1921 Watford Observer prints large sketch of barn by W E Edwards and brief history.
1951 Min of Housing&LG designate barn Grade III, admit error in Sept of that year and promise reclassification to Grade II.
1962/3 Press reports and photo of severely collapsing roof etc: continued unchecked until August 73.
1963 Press report: E P Weller, Bursar of G&C College has offered barn as a gift to Rickmansworth UDC.
5/1963 Report by R Andrews, architect, to Rickmansworth UDC on possible uses for barn.
1970 ‘Listed Building’ regrading confirmed: now Grade II*
9/1972 Property Deeds transfer ownership from G&C College to Herts.County Council.
8/1973 Renovation commenced by County Architect, proposed cost £17000+ £4500 Gov Grant. ‘will take some months’
9/1975 Restoration completed (2 years), timbers sent for dendro dating and barn avail for St Joan School. The final cost and the whereabouts of the specifications /working drawings are still unknown.
5/1995 Property Deeds transferred ownership at no cost from Herts.CC via ‘ Education Assets Board’ to Governors of St Joan of Arc + additional 6 acre sportsfield.
2000 Barn timbers dendro-dated to winter 1397/8 by Dr Martin Bridge (UCL) for Eng Heritage: Report 25/2000.
2002 Placed on English Heritage ‘Buildings at Risk Register.
2003 Barn proposed but not selected for first series of BBC TV’s Restoration series.
2/2005 Feasibility Report (90pp.) by Scurr and Partners Ltd, Architects.
11/2005 Condition Survey (14pp.) by R M Crump Ltd. Laser scan of structure to produce full 3D CAD model.
2006 Considered for second series of Restoration but, after visit by programme director, again not selected.
5/2008 St Joan of Arc School allows Three Rivers Museum Trust to offer interior viewings by arrangement with school.
5/2008 Fleetingly seen in Christina, a BBC4 TV programme by Michael Wood, mediæval historian.
2/2012 Ownership of barn transferred to private company, The Croxley Great Barn Foundation (Company No. 07962740).