{{Short description|Structure built to enclose a horse engine}} {{For|gearing housed inside a gin gang|horse mill}} [[Image:Wheelhouse at Hudsons Barn, Burn Bridge 016b.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Gin gang at Burn Bridge, North Yorkshire]] thumb|right|250px|The Burn Bridge gin gang demolished due to disrepair, November 2010, to be rebuilt as domestic accommodation

A '''gin gang''', '''wheelhouse''', '''roundhouse''' or '''horse-engine house''' is a structure built to enclose a horse engine, usually circular but sometimes square or octagonal, attached to a threshing barn. Most were built in England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The threshing barn held a small threshing machine which was connected to the gin gang via wooden gears, drive shafts and drive belt, and was powered by a horse which walked round and round inside the gin gang.

==Operation and structure== The ''gin'' (short for "engine") was the motive power driving a small threshing machine, and the horse did the ''gang'', or ''going''.<ref name="KeysGinGang">{{cite web|url=http://www.keystothepast.info/article/9972/Glossary?HER=2653860|title=Keys to the past|year=2019|work=Glossary Gin gang; Gin-gang; Gingang|publisher=DBC|accessdate=12 December 2019|archive-date=13 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191213030804/http://www.keystothepast.info/article/9972/Glossary?HER=2653860|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="EHhorseenginehouse"/> The gin gang was always attached to the main threshing barn, where the gin was situated. It was almost always of one storey and it could be circular, polygonal or square. There was a hole for a drive−shaft or drive−belt, linking it with the threshing barn.<ref name="HuttonAHR-1976"/> The gin was connected by cogs to a vertical spindle. The spindle was connected to a horizontal arrangement including a shaft attached to a horse, which turned the spindle and powered the machine by ''ganging'' or walking round and round the cogs and vertical spindle inside the walls of the gin gang. This arrangement was necessary in locations where there was no power for a water wheel,<ref name="EHhorseenginehouse">{{cite web|url=http://thesaurus.english-heritage.org.uk/thesaurus_term.asp?thes_no=1&term_no=71546|title=English Heritage|year=2007|work=Horse enging house|accessdate=11 April 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718172353/http://thesaurus.english-heritage.org.uk/thesaurus_term.asp?thes_no=1&term_no=71546|archivedate=18 July 2011|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> hence in Wales and Ireland there is evidence of fewer gin gangs.<ref name="HuttonAHR-1976"/>

[[Image:Gin gang 003.jpg|thumb|left|Gin gang at Hepple, Northumberland]] Gin gangs were not usually thatched but were stone−flagged, tiled or pantiled, possibly because the gin damaged potential thatching straw.<ref name="HuttonAHR-1976"/> Its structure tended to reflect locally available materials and hence local vernacular building style, because railways had not generally distributed brick and slate. Building materials include thatch in Sussex, pantiles in North Yorkshire, stone tiles and sandstone in Northumberland, granite pillars in Devon, wooden poles and flint in Norfolk, weatherboarding in Berkshire, brick in the East Riding of Yorkshire, white Magnesian Limestone in West Yorkshire, ironstone in Bedfordshire, and one instance of hexagonal ashlar pillars salvaged from Finchale Priory in Finchale, County Durham. Gin gangs were required to shelter the wooden gears, and not to protect the horse; hence in some places there is evidence of ''horse−walks'' or open−air horse−powered threshing machines instead.<ref name="HuttonAHR-1976"/> The horse in the gin gang could also power machinery outdoors.<ref name="KeysGinGang"/>

==History and distribution== [[Image:Gin gang 042.jpg|thumb|right|Gin gang at Stapleton, Richmondshire]] Local names for covered gin gangs were ''covered gin−house'', ''covered horse−walk'', ''enginehouse'', ''gin−case'', ''gin−gan'', ''gin−gang'', ''gin−house'', ''gin−race'', ''horse−gear'', ''horse mill''/horse-mill, ''round−house'', ''track−shed'', ''four−wheelhouse'', ''wheel−rig'', ''wheel−shade'' and ''wheel−shed''. These are not to be confused with the uncovered ones which were called ''gin−circle'', ''ginnyring'', ''horse−course'', ''horse−gang'', ''horse−path'', ''horse−track'' and ''horse−walk''.<ref name="HuttonAHR-1976"/> In Scotland, Wales, and Warwickshire a gin gang was commonly called a ''horse engine house''.<ref name="HighlandCouncilGlossary">{{cite web|url=http://her.highland.gov.uk/SingleResult.aspx?uid=THG3041|title=The Highland Council|year=2010|work=Glossary: Horse Engine House|accessdate=11 April 2010}}</ref><ref name="WarwickshireGlossary">{{cite web|url=http://timetrail.warwickshire.gov.uk/searchglossary.aspx?term=engine%20house|title=Warwickshire County Council|year=2010|work=Take the Timetrail with Warwickshire Museum: glossary|publisher=WCC|accessdate=11 April 2010}}</ref>

In 1976, 1,300 gin gangs were identified in Great Britain, and a few others in Ireland, Denmark, the Netherlands, and East Germany. Most gin gangs were built from around 1785 to 1851, peaking in 1800 to 1830. The most recent ones were built in the Isle of Wight and Cornwall from 1845 to 1868. In the 19th century there were 575 gin gangs in Northumberland and 227 in West Cumberland, but between the 1890s and the 1960s, hundreds of these were destroyed. In the 1970s, 276 survived in Northumberland and 200 in County Durham. In the same decade a survey found most remaining gin gangs were in the north−east and south−west of England, and it was suggested that this distribution could have been affected by the 1830 Swing Riots which destroyed most threshing machines in the south−east of England. As a result of this, in the 1970s Scotland still had 150 gin gangs, North East England had 800 and Cornwall had 100 remaining, but Wiltshire and Berkshire had 8 between them. Conversely, the Napoleonic Wars of 1803 to 1815 created a dearth of labour and a corresponding demand for gin gangs in Cornwall, Devon, and Dorset. The truly portable horse engine was invented around 1840; this obviated the necessity for building further gin gangs.<ref name="HuttonAHR-1976">{{cite journal|last=Hutton|first=Kenneth|year=1976|title=The distribution of wheelhouses in Britain|journal=Agricultural History Review|publisher=British Agricultural History Society|volume=24|issue=1|pages=30–35|url=http://www.bahs.org.uk/24n1a3.pdf|accessdate=11 April 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716111729/http://www.bahs.org.uk/24n1a3.pdf|archivedate=16 July 2011}}</ref>

==Existing gin gangs== No gin gang remains in operation commercially; the known examples outside museums are either derelict or have been renovated as barn conversions. These are Hutton AHR,<ref name="HuttonAHR-1976"/> Keys farm buildings,<ref name="KeysFarmbuildings-Listed"/> Scran horse engine house,<ref name="ScranHorseEngineHouse"/> Scran Friars Croft Dunbr,<ref name="ScranFriarscroftDunbar"/> Carsegour gingang,<ref name="CarsegourGingang"/> Westruther gingang,<ref name="WestrutherGingang74"/> RCAHM Skildinny,<ref name="RCAHMSkildinny"/> horse engine house Perth and Kinross,<ref name="P&K-horseenginehouse"/> Sanday,<ref name="Sanday"/> Muggleswick gin gang,<ref name="KeysMuggleswick"/> Holbeck farmhouse,<ref name="BarrowCouncil79"/> Colton farmhouse,<ref name="SCCnettlecombe"/> Ystum Colwyn farm Meifod,<ref name="CPATmeifod10"/>{{dead link|date=November 2021}} Beamish,<ref name="BeamishWebsite"/> Brewers House Museum <ref name="BrewersHouseMuseum"/> and Forkneuk Horse Engine House at Uphall in West Lothian,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://canmore.org.uk/site/212846/contribution/forkneuk-farm/CAN1_99809 |title=Forkneuk Farm &#124; Canmore }}</ref>

===Remnant or derelict=== [[Image:Gin gang 021.jpg|thumb|left|Semi-octagonal gin gang with horse mill inside, at Beamish Museum]] The surviving Low Walworth gin gang was built around the late 18th century.<ref name="KeysFarmbuildings-Listed">{{cite web|url=http://www.keystothepast.info/durhamcc/K2P.nsf/K2PDetail?readform&PRN=D11079 |title=Keys to the past |year=2010 |work=Farmbuildings to north of low walworth farmhouse; Listed building (Walworth) |publisher=DBC |accessdate=11 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110616203239/http://www.keystothepast.info/durhamcc/K2P.nsf/K2PDetail?readform&PRN=D11079 |archivedate=16 June 2011 }}</ref> In Northumberland examples exist in Harlow Hill, Hepple, Redesmouth and Stanton. In North Yorkshire two remain at Burn Bridge and Stapleton (''see Commons link below''). Scottish examples survive at St Quivox, South Ayrshire,<ref name="ScranHorseEngineHouse">{{cite web|url=http://www.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-000-187-914-C|title=Scran|year=2010|work=Horse-engine house|publisher=Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments |accessdate=11 April 2010}}</ref> at Dunbar, East Lothian,<ref name="ScranFriarscroftDunbar">{{cite web|url=http://www.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-000-466-295-C|title=Scran|year=2010|work=Horse engine house, Friarscroft, Dunbar|publisher=National Museums Scotland|accessdate=11 April 2010}}</ref> and at Carsegour, Kinross,<ref name="CarsegourGingang">{{cite web|url=http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/search_item/index.php?service=RCAHMS&id=166528|title=Scotlands places|year=2010|work=Carsegour, Farmstead and Horse-engine House|publisher=The National Archive of Scotland|accessdate=11 April 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719234626/http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/search_item/index.php?service=RCAHMS&id=166528|archivedate=2011-07-19|url-status=dead}}</ref> but the one at Westruther, Westertown in Berwickshire appears to have been destroyed since 1974.<ref name="WestrutherGingang74">{{cite web|url=http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/search_item/index.php?service=RCAHMS&id=145398|title=Scotlands Places|year=2010|work=Westruther, Westertown, Horse-engine House|publisher=The National Archives of Scotland|accessdate=11 April 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719234638/http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/search_item/index.php?service=RCAHMS&id=145398|archivedate=2011-07-19|url-status=dead}}</ref> The site of a former gin gang exists at Kildinny steading at Forteviot in Strathearn, Scotland.<ref name="RCAHMSkildinny">{{cite web|url=http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/26576/details/kildinny/|title=Royal commission on the ancient and historical monuments of Scotland|year=2010|work=Kildinny|publisher=RCAHMS|accessdate=11 April 2010}}</ref> However quite a few do survive in Perth and Kinross,<ref name="P&K-horseenginehouse">{{cite web|url=http://www.pkht.org.uk/HERSearchResults.asp?selClass=1&selParish=MUTHILL&selPeriod=-1|title=Perth & Kinross Heritage Trust|year=2010|work=Records: horse engine house|publisher=Perth & Kinross|accessdate=11 April 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727034719/http://www.pkht.org.uk/HERSearchResults.asp?selClass=1&selParish=MUTHILL&selPeriod=-1|archivedate=27 July 2011}}</ref> and there is one at Tresness Farm on Sanday in Orkney.<ref name="Sanday">{{cite web|url=http://www.visitorkney.com/sanday/index.asp|title=Visit Orkney|year=2010|work=Sanday|accessdate=11 April 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101202022604/http://visitorkney.com/sanday/index.asp|archivedate=2 December 2010}}</ref> There is a listed gin gang at The Grange farmhouse at Muggleswick in County Durham,<ref name="KeysMuggleswick">{{cite web|url=http://www.keystothepast.info/durhamcc/K2P.nsf/K2PDetail?readform&PRN=D11743|title=Keys to the past|year=2010|work=Grange Farmhouse & Gin Gang, Muggleswick; Listed building (Muggleswick)|publisher=DCC|accessdate=11 April 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110616204142/http://www.keystothepast.info/durhamcc/K2P.nsf/K2PDetail?readform&PRN=D11743|archivedate=16 June 2011}}</ref> and there used to be one in 1979 at Holbeck farmhouse in Barrow-in-Furness.<ref name="BarrowCouncil79">{{cite web|url=http://localportal.barrowbc.gov.uk/portal/servlets/AttachmentShowServlet?ImageName=30906|title=Barrow Borough Council|date=1978–1979|work=Survey record of Holbeck farm house|publisher=Barrow Council|accessdate=11 April 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110820054455/http://localportal.barrowbc.gov.uk/portal/servlets/AttachmentShowServlet?ImageName=30906|archivedate=20 August 2011}}</ref> There is an example at Nettlecombe in Somerset.<ref name="SCCnettlecombe">{{cite web|url=http://www.somersetheritage.org.uk/record/12290|title=Somerset County Council|last=Webster|first=C.J.|year=2001|work=Somerset Historic Environment Record: Colton farmhouse, Nettlecombe|publisher=SCC|accessdate=11 April 2010}}</ref> There is an extant gin gang at Ystum Colwyn Farm, Meifod, in Wales.<ref name="CPATmeifod10">{{cite web|url=http://www.cpat.org.uk/projects/longer/ystumcol/ystumc.htm|title=CPAT|year=2010|work=Ystum Colwyn Farm, Meifod|publisher=CPAT|accessdate=11 April 2010}}</ref> The Beamish Museum in County Durham contains a restored gin gang.<ref name="HuttonAHR-1976"/><ref name="BeamishWebsite">{{cite web|url=http://www.beamish.org.uk/Home.aspx|title=Beamish|year=2010|work=Website homepage|accessdate=11 April 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100413150615/http://www.beamish.org.uk/Home.aspx|archivedate=13 April 2010}}</ref> Another has been preserved at Weald and Downland Open Air Museum but is now labelled as a horse whim for raising water, as is the one at Brewers' House Museum in Antwerp.<ref name="BrewersHouseMuseum">{{cite web|url=http://www.trabel.com/antwerp-brewers.htm|title=Trabel.com|year=2010|work=Antwerp: the Brewers' House Museum|accessdate=11 April 2010}}</ref>

===Barn conversions=== In Chopwell in Tyne and Wear a gin gang is part of a barn conversion.<ref name="Chopwell">[http://www.expertagent.co.uk/in4glestates/%7BB4E13DA3-CE62-41DF-BD70-B794AA4D98D6%7D/%7Bad6d9ceb-91c7-4277-9873-1c8915fc90a5%7D/Main/100_6326.jpg Image of Chopwell gin gang barn conversion]{{dead link|date=October 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Another one was renovated to become holiday cottages in the face of local controversy at Lanchester, County Durham.<ref name="DCCNewbiggen09">{{cite web|url=http://www.planning.derwentside.gov.uk/planning/09-0547/report.pdf|title=Durham County Council|year=2009|work=Delegated report: Middle Newbiggen Farm, Newbiggen Lane, Lanchester|publisher=DCC|accessdate=11 April 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305171108/http://www.planning.derwentside.gov.uk/planning/09-0547/report.pdf|archivedate=5 March 2012}}</ref><ref name="NorthernEchoLanchester02">{{cite web|url=http://archive.thenorthernecho.co.uk/2002/1/4/149790.html|title=The Northern Echo|date=4 January 2002|work=Farm conversions likely to be approved|publisher=Newsquest Media Group|accessdate=11 April 2010}}</ref> A barn conversion development, from a group of farm buildings known as a ''steading'' including an octagonal gin gang, was completed in 2010 at Longhorsley, Northumberland.<ref name="MillhouseLonghorsley10">{{cite web|url=http://www.millhousedevelopments.co.uk/lindisfarne_house.html|title=Millhouse Developments|year=2010|work=Cragside Mews|accessdate=11 April 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111009025154/http://www.millhousedevelopments.co.uk/lindisfarne_house.html|archivedate=9 October 2011}}</ref> Another example survives as a barn conversion at Southstoke, Somerset.<ref name="EHsouthstoke07">{{cite web|url=http://www.heritageexplorer.org.uk/web/he/searchdetail.aspx?id=4860&start=1&crit=barn|title=English Heritage national monuments record|year=2007|work=Tithe Barn, Dovecote and Horse Engine-House, Southstoke, Bath & North East Somerset|publisher=English Heritage|accessdate=11 April 2010}}{{Dead link|date=May 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Another recent renovation completed in January 2013 is The Wheelhouse in Barton North Yorkshire, now a holiday let.

==Gin gang at Beamish Museum==

===Building=== Home Farm at the Beamish Museum, County Durham, contains an early 19th-century, semi-octagonal gin gang with sandstone or millstone grit walls and slate roof. The renovated internal roof structure is based on a traditional space frame truss with its primary plane in line with the tie beam (or joist), and with members fixed between king post and rafters to support the semi-octagonal plan of the roof. There is one main transverse oak tie beam on which the king post of the main truss is based. The king post is in tension to prevent sagging of the horizontal tie beam, so neither the king post nor the tie beam are resting on the mill below. The roof construction is not structurally dependent on the horse mill, or connected with it.<ref name="refimagesandmuseum">See images in Commons category|Gin gang and Commons category|Horse mill, or for further information contact the [http://www.beamish.org.uk/Tools/Contact-Us.aspx agricultural department of Beamish Museum] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100328044407/http://www.beamish.org.uk/Tools/Contact-Us.aspx |date=2010-03-28 }}. There is no printed or online citation for this building.</ref>

<gallery class="center"> Image:Gin gang 006.jpg|Top part of space frame truss (bottom tie beam of truss hidden behind the mill's tie beam) Image:Gin gang 011.jpg|View showing that roof truss and mill are separate. Top set is roof truss; bottom set is beams supporting (hidden) main horizontal gear wheel of mill. Tie beam supporting top mill axle pivot is just visible between roof truss and mill Image:Gin gang 015.jpg|Massive oak drive shaft of mill passing through wall of threshing barn, supported on both sides by two heavy oak beams fixed between the mill's own tie beam and the threshing barn wall Image:Gin gang 026.jpg|Inside threshing barn: gear wheels on end of drive shaft, where further gears and drive belts would be attached for driving various machines </gallery>

===Horse mill=== {{Main|Horse mill}} The Beamish gin gang and its ''in−situ'' horse mill have not been used since the 1830s when portable engines superseded it. The gin gang survived because its original mill was removed and it was converted for other uses. The present mill was brought by the museum from Berwick Mills Low Farm in Northumberland. The museum has repaired and installed it as a museum exhibit, but it is not currently fit for purpose. The top of the mill's main vertical axle and the end of the main drive shaft are pivoted at the centre of their own separate tie beam, which is below and parallel with the main roof tie beam and set in the gin gang's side walls at either end. The mill's tie beam has to be stabilised with two massive oak beams which run, either side of the drive shaft, from tie beam to barn wall. A large and basic engine like this can create great stresses from the torque engendered.<ref name="refimagesandmuseum"/>

==See also== * Horse mill * List of horse mills * Threshing machine

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Gin gangs}} {{Commons category|Horse mills}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20020712163335/http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/help/help.asp?code=BTThes%2Fh%2F71546.htm Images of England: glossary, horse engine house]

Category:History of agriculture in the United Kingdom Category:Architecture in the United Kingdom