The barn at Great Coxwell is thought to be one of the best surviving tithe barns in Europe. Picture courtesy Vale and Downland Museum

The humble barn is often overlooked in our social history, yet they have played a central role in rural life and the production of food, as well as other materials in Britain for hundreds of years.

Today these buildings, dotted around the shrinking corners of our countryside, are under threat from increased use of machinery, decline in agriculture and unsympathetic conversions into houses.

Crucks, Flails And Rats: An Exhibition about Oxford and North Berkshire barns 1300-2003, runs until March 3 2007 at The Vale and Downland Museum and explores the history of these unassuming buildings and the people who built and worked in them.

The interior of a barn at Harwell. Picture courtesy Vale and Downland Museum

The exhibition looks at four barns that have been saved for future generations, three of which are open to the public. One example is Swalcliffe barn, which was built by New College Oxford, took nine years to build and was completed in 1409. This barn was originally used as a store and for threshing corn.

Over the last 600 years its use has changed, first to house livestock and later to store root crops. It now holds the Oxford County Museum's collection of vehicles and farm machinery and is open to the public during the summer.

Another famous local barn is the Great Coxwell medieval tithe barn – a magnificent church-like structure which is generally considered to be the best barn of its kind in Europe. A one-metre long model of the barn occupies the centre of the exhibition space and reveals the fascinating methods used in its construction.

Hunt's Barn, East Hendred, before it was dismantled and moved a few miles to Wantage. It is now part of the Museum's main gallery complex. Picture courtesy Vale and Downland Museum

The exhibition also features detailed interpretation boards alongside images and objects, including traditional threshing tools. There are also some taxidermist specimens illustrating the birds that nest in farm buildings.

Needless to say the exhibition doesn't contain any actual barns, although it is worth noting that part of Vale and Downland Museum consists of a 17th century timber framed barn moved from the nearby village of East Hendred, while another nearby museum, Cogges Manor Farm, is to be found in a converted barn building.

Vulnerable to decay and insensitive conversions, barns are costly to maintain and rarely have the visual impact of a historical house and so tend to remain unrecorded and unnoticed. This exhibition celebrates the place of barns in our countryside, from their visual impact to their place in history and the people who built them, used them and worked in them.

A surving barn at Ardlington. Picture courtesy Vale and Downland Museum

A Family Friendly day of activities takes place on February 24 and offers visitors the chance to try their hand at assembling wooden joints, animal modelling, a mystery photo quiz and to meet a 19th century shepherd to find out about the tools of his trade and his way of life - contact the Museum for more details.