TRADITIONAL farm buildings are disappearing from the English countryside, says a new conservation report.
Pressures on the countryside are putting rural buildings such as barns and stables at more risk than any other type of historic building, English Heritage and the Countryside Agency claimed.
Simon Thurley, chief executive of English Heritage, said: "I am afraid there is an alarming conclusion to be drawn from this report that farm buildings - in common with many other types of traditional building in urban areas such as police stations, courts and schools - are now falling out of use very rapidly.
"Because they are falling out of use, they are vanishing fast and we now know that these buildings are more at risk from current pressures on the countryside than any other type of historic building in England.
"We are talking about thousands of barns, wagon sheds, byres, dovecotes, outhouses, stables and oast houses. These buildings face disuse and dereliction.
"Almost as bad is that some of them are being converted in such a way that is fundamentally unsympathetic to the buildings and very unsympathetic to the countryside itself."
