What is the pointy thing at the gable end of the top/ front of some barns?

by Anna
(Ellensburg, WA)

What is the pointy thing at the gable end of the top/ front of some barns?


It was used on old barns for lifting hay into the hay loft. Sometimes you see a pulley extending from them. Now you mostly see them for decoration. What are they called?

Hi Anna,

Great question! I have heard three different terms for them.

1. Widow's Peak - presumably that has to do with the hooded garment that a mourning widow would wear, and how the hood would apear similar to the hay trolley peak on a barn.

2. Hay hood - because it was used to cover the outside of the hay trolley system.

3. Crows Beak - presumably because it resembles a crows beak.

If anyone else out there have heard other names for it, please share in the comments below.

-BarnGeek

In, response to Will's question below.

Hi Will,

The pulley was usually on a track that ran the entire length of the barn called a Hay Trolley. Many times the hay was hoisted all the way up to the peak then pulled into the barn where it was released into the Hay Mow. Oh, and the hay was loose, not baled like we see it today.

That is only a very basic description of the process. The whole system was fairly complex with several pulleys inside the barn for depositing the hay in different places through the barn, each of these pulleys was located near or at the top of the queen posts and ladders were built into the barns frame system to allow the farmer to climb up to the pulleys.

The next time you get a chance to look inside an old barn, take a moment and observe where the pulleys and ladders, are. Look for the trolley system at the peak, and let your mind imagine how the whole process worked.

The most fascinating system I have seen did not use a widow's peak at all. In fact many barns loaded hay through the large sliding door in the side of the barn.

This one had a very large wheel or wooden pulley, I'd say it was about 12 feet in diameter. It had a large round oak axle that spanned from one bent to the next directly above the slider door.

The wheel or pulley had several wooden pegs in it spaced about one foot apart.

I imagine that it was used to lift the hay by human power instead of horse power, or maybe the farmer had only small horses.

This barn was also the oldest barn I have ever been inside of dating to before the civil war. There was not one piece of machine sawn wood in that barn.

Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures, and I don't remember where it is.

-BarnGeek