Bridge Farmhouse

Bridge Farmhouse is a house of medieval origin, first built in the 15th century and subsequently remodelled in the 16th century, around 1600, in the early and late 18th century, and extended in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is constructed with a timber frame and plaster panels, with the ground floor rebuilt in stone rubble that is now painted. The roof is covered in Welsh slate, hipped at the front and with gabled cross-wings at the rear. Large stone rubble lateral stacks with brick shafts rise prominently from the sides.

The building is U-shaped in plan. The original 15th-century house comprised an open hall with a cross-passage to the left (west) and two three-bay cross-wings. The low-end cross-wing on the left was open to the roof, while the cross-wing on the right contained unheated rooms on the ground floor and a large chamber (solar) above, also open to the roof. Around 1600, the solar was given a fine moulded plaster ceiling, and at approximately the same time floors were inserted into the hall and the low west-end cross-wing. A lateral stack was built at the back of the hall. In the early 18th century, a staircase was inserted into the east cross-wing, dividing the solar, and an outbuilding with a loft was constructed at the rear of the west cross-wing. The ground floor walls were rebuilt in stone at about this period. A second staircase was added in the widened cross-passage in the late 18th century. In the 19th century, an outshut was built behind the hall, between the two wings.

The exterior is two storeys with an asymmetrical south-facing front of five windows. The first floor has early 19th-century two and three-light casements, while the ground floor retains later 19th or 20th-century two, three and four-light casements. A doorway to the left of centre is sheltered by a gabled canopy with a domed soffit on acanthus console brackets, leading to a panelled door with later glazing. Steps descend to a cellar doorway on the left. Large projecting lateral stacks with weathered set-offs feature at the sides and rear. The rear elevation shows projecting gabled cross-wings to left and right, the right-hand wing including a former outbuilding extension with lattice framing in the gable end. Between the wings stands a brick outshut.

The interior contains a widened cross-passage with a late 18th-century staircase featuring a Chinoiserie balustrade at the top. The hall has a framed ceiling with chamfered beams, an exposed rear wall-post with a moulded corbel, and the foot of a chamfered arch brace. The front room of the east cross-wing features a moulded stone fireplace. The rear room has large exposed joists and an early 18th-century staircase at its centre with a heavy moulded handrail and replaced balusters. The chamber above contains an inserted partition and preserves a fine moulded single-rib plaster ceiling dating from around 1600, decorated with kite-shaped panels, fleur-de-lis and Tudor roses. This room also retains panelling, a moulded stone fireplace, and exposed framing with feet of arch braces. The rear ground floor room of the west cross-wing contains a stone fireplace, possibly a reused solar fireplace. Chamfered ceiling beams and exposed wall-framing with jowled storey-posts feature here, with an ogee-head to the doorway into the west cross-wing.

The cross-wings retain three-bay Medieval roofs with tie-beam and collar trusses, all chamfered with mason's mitres, chamfered threaded purlins and chamfered curved wind-braces. The west wing is smoke-blackened, indicating its age, while the east wing is clean. The hall roof was rebuilt but reuses smoke-blackened principal rafters in a king-post configuration, with some smoke-blackened common-rafters retained.