Numbers 4 And 5

Pair of farmhouses, now houses, at Broome in Hopesay.

No. 4 is a late 15th or early 16th century timber-framed building with later additions and alterations. It has a T-plan with a 2-bay gabled cross-wing projecting to the right and a slightly later roughly equal-length hall range to the left. The hall range is one storey and attic; the cross-wing is two storeys. The front is roughcast with some rubblestone and painted brick underbuilding; the rear of the hall range is roughly coursed limestone rubble. The roof is slate.

The timber framing features close studding with short straight tension braces exposed to the right wall of the cross-wing, which is jettied to front and rear. Below the eaves on the right wall are positions of infilled windows; one to the left has been cut by the shaft of a later stack. The front gable has carved corner brackets. The dormer to the gabled eaves of the hall range and the window directly below it are late 20th century casements. The front gable of the cross-wing has early 20th century casements on each floor and a 20th century boarded door to the left.

To the left of the hall range is a roughcast semicircular bread oven with a stone slate cap, linked to an integral red brick end stack with stepped shaft at the junction with No. 5. An external lateral rubblestone stack with a red brick shaft stands on the right wall of the cross-wing.

Internally, the cross-wing's front and back room (now one room) has deep-chamfered ceiling beams. The main room of the hall range has a chamfered cross-beam ceiling with straight-cut stops and a huge stack with an infilled inglenook fireplace, formerly said to have had grotesques to the overmantel. The first floor of the cross-wing has a central queen-strut truss with V-struts from the collar, jowled wall posts with short straight braces to tie beams, and double-purlins with straight-cut stops and short straight wind braces. A Tudor arch with a plank door (brought from No. 5) cuts through the tie beam by the left wall post, suggesting the range has always had a first floor or that it is an early insertion. Remains of an open hearth are said to have been found on the ground floor of the cross-wing, though this may have belonged to an earlier building on the site.

No. 5 dates from the late 17th century and was remodelled in the mid-18th century, with later alterations. It is built of red brick (mixed and English bond) encasing a timber frame, except to the right gable end where the frame is rendered. It has a chamfered rubblestone plinth and a machine tile roof. The building is two storeys with a floor band and a former gable-lit attic, with a 2-window front. The casements are 19th century; the lower right is segmental-headed, while the lower left has been replaced by a shorter 20th century segmental-headed casement in the position of an infilled doorway. A small 20th century segmental-headed casement is on the centre of the ground floor. The entrance is through a 20th century half-glazed door to the rear.

The right gable end has projecting double-purlin and wall-plate ends and the external stack shared with No. 4. The left gable end has an external stack with paired and rebated shafts. The timber frame of the right gable end (with square panels) was partly visible in No. 4. A full interior inspection of No. 5 was not possible at the time of resurvey in September 1986.