According to the Napoleonic land register for Rots, the former Saint-Ouen manor house, situated very close to the church, comprised – arranged around a quadrangular courtyard – the manor house itself, the tithe barn, various farm buildings and, towards the church, a pond.
The tithe barn is the most important building in this complex. The oldest part, which may date back to the 13th century, is a large rectangular nave oriented from south-west to north-east between two high gables and supported on the outside by stepped buttresses with glacis and a string course; in the centre of its south-west buttress wall is the single carriage entrance, preceded by a porch (which appears to have been demolished after the conservation order was issued!). This very uniform section was extended to the north-west by a former
cart shed; this part is private.
As a tithe collector, the Abbey of Saint Ouen in Rouen had built a very large tithe barn. (Around 980, Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy, granted to the Abbey of Saint Ouen in Rouen ‘the villa known as Rots’ along with all the land belonging to it.)
This barn is situated at the heart of a complex comprising the Church of Saint Ouen and the Colombier farm, in the centre of the church district, within a particularly well-preserved rural setting.
