The Red Barn occupied an isolated position on Barnfield Hill, about a mile from Polstead church and half a mile from the Martens' cottage. It was used for storing and threshing the grain after harvest. The Corder family rented it, together with the nearby fields, from Mrs Cooke of Polstead Hall.

The barn was a large wooden construction with outbuildings attached and stood in an enclosed yard. Part of the roof was thatched. The rest was covered in red tiles from which the barn seems to have derived its name. Drawings, plans, even pottery models survive to show what the barn was like.

Corder and Maria often walked to the Red Barn, so it was natural that he arranged to meet her there on her last day. He said that had not intended to kill Maria in the barn, but before they left an argument arose and he shot her dead.

After the widespread press coverage of the murder thousands of visitors made a pilgrimage to the Red Barn - Curtis estimated over 200,000 during the summer of 1828 alone. Many shed a tear for Maria. Many more took pieces of the barn as souvenirs. Rumours suggested that the barn's owner was so irritated by souvenir hunters that she threatened to have it demolished. It continued to stand, however, though in a ruinous state, until 1842, when an arsonist burnt it down during a period of agricultural unrest.