Bridge Farmhouse

Bridge Farmhouse is a building with a core dating back to the 14th or 15th century, significantly remodelled in the early 17th century, with later additions and alterations. The timber frame is mostly rendered, except for the right gable end, which displays a visible blade of large cruck construction. It has a sandstone plinth and plain tile roofs. Originally an open-hall house, one cruck truss remains, apparently converted to a baffle-entry plan of two wide framed bays in the early 17th century. A late 17th-century cowhouse with a loft above was converted into domestic accommodation in the 20th century; the roof structure of the main house has been substantially altered above tie-beam level. The farmhouse is two storeys high. There is a 20th-century casement window on the ground floor to the left of a shallow-gabled porch, which has a 20th-century nail-studded door on the site of an earlier porch. Immediately above the porch is a narrow, fixed-light window from the 19th century with leaded panes. A set-back bay to the right has 19th-century casement windows with leaded lights on each floor. An axial red brick stack is located directly above the porch in the roof slope. The right gable end displays a true cruck truss with upper and lower collars and a truncated apex; fragmentary rectangular panels are visible on both floors to the back wall on the left. Two late 20th-century casements are present on the ground floor of the former cowhouse, accompanied by contemporary gabled dormers that break the eaves directly above. Original principal rafters with raking struts from a tie beam are exposed beneath raised eaves on the right gable end; vertical posts beneath the tie beam are largely concealed behind a painted brick lean-to. Inside, the left ground floor room has close studding to the front wall and a cross wall, with square panels to the back wall. A moulded spine beam with run-out stops and a 17th-century stone fireplace with a moulded surround terminating in ogee stops to the base, and a moulded mantel shelf, are also present. The right ground-floor room features a brick inglenook fireplace with a chamfered wooden lintel. The base of the cruck truss with a chamfered brace is visible, along with vertical posts in the wall that represent the left gable end of the former cowhouse. A pantry in the rear left corner of the house has a sandstone-walled cellar beneath. The right gable end of the first floor displays the cruck truss, including a slot for a massive trenched purlin and large spurs. Peat brick infill is visible where the cruck is exposed in the left first-floor room of the former cowhouse. A massive central stack has 17th-century panelled doors on either side; vertical posts with long, straight tension braces are visible beneath the tie beam of the center truss. The left room has a square-headed stone fireplace with a moulded mantel shelf like that in the left ground-floor room, and an inset wall cupboard with H-hinges.