Westwood House

Westwood House is an early 18th-century former farmhouse at Bridgnorth, Oldbury. Built of red brick with plain clay tile roofs and parapeted main ranges except for the slate-covered front slope, it was refenestrated and extended in the mid-19th century. The building is three storeys high and was undergoing major repair and minor alteration at the time of inspection in January 2003.

The house follows a double-depth plan of five bays aligned east-west, with the entrance elevation facing north. Lower mid-19th-century additions are attached to the west gable ends of both main ranges, with the rear addition being taller than the front one, which projects further westward.

The north elevation is symmetrical, featuring tripartite sashes on the ground floor flanking a late 20th-century reconstituted stone Doric portico that replaced an earlier gabled porch (whose outline remains visible). The portico stands over an eight-panel door with glazed upper panels. The first-floor windows are 6-paned sashes to the left and right and a 4-paned sash to the centre, all with painted wedge lintels. Five 6-paned sashes of reduced size sit directly below the eaves.

The east elevation is parapeted to conceal twin-span roofs and has two windows on each floor with segmental heads and cross casements on the ground and first floors; the second-floor windows are blind, with that to the rear cut by the steep roof pitch. Simple openings serve the cellar. A central integral end stack rises from this elevation.

The west elevation of the main house is similar in character, with a cross-window to the left on the first floor largely concealed by the 19th-century addition, and a blind window directly above. A central integral end stack marks the building, with another stack positioned behind the parapet at the centre of the rear range.

The south elevation is less symmetrical than the front, featuring four segmental-headed cross-windows and one single-light casement on the first floor. A central six-panel door on the ground floor (a gabled porch was recently removed) is flanked by a French window to the left and a three-light window with timber mullions and transoms to the right. Three early 21st-century and four late 20th-century rooflights break the roofline. The 19th-century additions to the west include segmental-headed casement windows, notably a two-light leaded window on the ground floor of the lower range's gable end, which also has a plank door to the rear opening into the angle with the higher range.

A brick wall with stone-capped gate piers is attached to the north-west corner of the lower range and continues in a semi-circle to the north-east, forming a low partly drystone ha-ha wall.

Internally, ground and first-floor rooms retain chamfered cross-beams (formerly boxed), six-panel doors, and panelled window shutters in some rooms. An early 18th-century open-well staircase in the rear entrance hall features a turned newel, moulded ramped handrail, and turned balusters—two to each tread—with a plain, possibly altered, open string.

The left ground-floor room contains a cast-iron fireplace, while the right ground-floor room has a large open fireplace with a timber lintel, recently reopened at the time of inspection. Behind this room, the 19th-century stack and bread oven serving the 19th-century addition had recently been removed. The addition itself contains a king-post truss.

A six-panel door, with top panels separately top-hung, sits beneath the staircase and leads directly to straight-flight stone steps descending to the cellar. The cellar features brick floors and brick and stone shelving.

A dog-leg staircase to the attic has a balustrade with turned balusters at the top; plank doors with H- and strap-hinges serve various spaces, including eaves and central storage areas.

The roofs over each parallel range of five bays feature heavy pegged and numbered timbers with curved principal trusses and double tenoned purlins—the upper in line with collars, the lower in line with tie beams, which are covered with wide oak floor boards.