Brookhouse Farm

Brookhouse Farm is a dwelling of late 14th-century date with alterations and additions spanning the 16th to 20th centuries, built on the site of a medieval open hall.

The building comprises an oak-framed crosswing of trestle-sawn timbers on sandstone footings and cellars, combined with a later brick wing. The crosswing rests on sandstone footings, whilst the later wing is constructed of red brick with oak first-floor and roof structure, partly of reused material. Both sections are roofed in clay tile with two red brick stacks.

The plan forms an L-shape. The crosswing consists of three bays (originally four) of two storeys plus an attic, with a later single-bay, two-storey wing at the north-west end that includes an attached single-storey bay with attic.

The crosswing frame is exposed with brick infill mostly removed in 2016. The frame is of large scanting with substantial sill beams, jowled corner posts, raked struts and braces, and four full-height wall posts to the north elevation, each approximately 3.5 metres in height. At first-floor level, evidence remains of a former rail with mortises for a pentice roof. The frame shows evidence for a lost fourth bay to the east and a former stair tower adjacent to the present entrance bay. The north elevation had four first-floor window openings with remains of window heads showing mortises for mullions. The west gable end retains exposed medieval timber framing, and formerly contained a tall four-light mullion window at first-floor level. The later brick wing runs broadly north to south with a storey band, brick dog-tooth eaves ornament, and segmental arches to openings. Its end bay has exposed timber framing to the south wall. Both wings have single-storey outshuts to the rear, dating to the late 19th or early 20th century, with exposed framing to the crosswing's first floor and similar detailing on the brick wing's façade. Window frames throughout are timber with some metal units.

Internally, the door in the north elevation opens to a hallway with part of a medieval door embedded in a partition beside a cellar stair. An opposing door at the hallway's rear descends to the former open-hall wing, with a corridor to the left leading to an enclosed winder stair. Principal rooms in the east and west bays feature deep chamfered cross beams with run-out stops. The room arrangement and corridor repeats at first-floor level, where the central and west rooms display elaborate 16th-century wall paintings including Shropshire scroll decoration to borders and foliate acanthus leaf designs, some retaining bright pigmentation.

The attic floor contains four pegged trusses. Three are tie-beam trusses with cambered tie-beams and large collars; the principal truss has jointed crucks. A single tier of chamfered purlins is threaded to two trusses and clasped to the other two. Long, diagonally-set windbraces with double ogee mouldings feature additional cusping and sinkings, four per bay (one missing where the attic opens to the adjoining wing). Truss apexes are pegged with no diagonally-set ridge piece, indicating late 14th-century rather than 15th-century date. The principal truss stands open and richly decorated above the collar with cusping matching the windbraces, bearing assembly marks and some later posts supporting the collar. Other trusses likewise have assembly marks; the closed truss adjoining the west bay has a doorway inserted through the tie beam. The east-end truss, faced to the building's interior, has circular assembly marks and provides evidence of the lost fourth bay. Doorframes and doors in this wing date to the 17th or 18th century, as do the stairs to first and attic floors.

The southern wing shows evidence in its north sill beam of fixings for a former open-hall dais, with framing and patchy brick and plaster infill above. A 17th or 18th-century first floor features substantial chamfered and scroll-stopped beams and a reused moulded bressumer. The room contains an inglenook with an inserted bressumer and brick relieving arch above; the room above has a stop-chamfered beam. The roof structure of this former open-hall wing incorporates reused elements, including a west purlin with structural characteristics of 13th-century date. The bay to the south likely contained a through passage in the former service end, with a fireplace at the south end constructed using a truncated cruck as a bressumer. The end bay's attic floor has a reordered roof structure including 17th-century principals and an inserted winder stair.

Two cellars are carved from sandstone, possibly contemporary with the crosswing, and have been reinforced with steel, brick, and concrete.