When we arrived at Dead Elm Farm in 1968, we were confronted with a derelict silo. It had not been used for many years and displayed a Pisa-like lean. We thought it was a hazard and decided to take it down, which we did by the simple expedient of tying one end of a rope to one of the metal rings and attaching the other end to a car bumper. The silo offered little resistance. But once it was removed, we discovered that decades of leaking at the junction of silo and barn had engendered massive rot in the uprights and sill and that the side of the barn was hanging by a thread and would need even more reconstruction than we could possibly have imagined.
The picture makes it all very clear, but there's a small structure visible at the top and to the right of the silo which I don't remember. What was it? Perhaps it was part of the primitive venting system that was used to keep hot air from building up in the hayloft. Or a cricket to keep the rain off?
And when did that vent or cricket disappear? What became of it? I have no recollection.
It was not a functional or useful silo, but it was beautiful in its own way. Though doomed.
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