Bronhaul

Bronhaul is a house dated 1771, incorporating a probable 15th-century core. It is located in Grinshill, Shropshire. The main structure is red brick with a dressed yellow/grey Grinshill sandstone plinth, and it incorporates a timber-framed core of cruck construction, topped with a plain tile roof. The house is arranged as one and a half storeys and two storeys, both with gable-lit attics. Architectural features include a chamfered plinth and a dentil brick eaves cornice. There are integral brick end stacks, one to the right and one internal to the left. The front has three bays, featuring segmental-headed wooden cross windows, and a central first-floor Venetian-type window with Gothick tracery. Above this window is a painted chamfered datestone inscribed "D 1771." Stone steps lead to a central 20th-century half-glazed door with a three-part rectangular overlight and moulded architrave. A lower kitchen wing extends to the right with a segmental-headed two-light wooden casement. A very tall stone plinth is visible at the rear.

Inside, a large, probably 15th-century former hall contains a full cruck truss with arch-braced collar, continuous chamfer, a central quasi boss, and yoke. A likely mid-16th-century chamfered cross-beamed ceiling frame is present in the kitchen block, alongside a late 16th-century inserted stack with a large open fireplace. A right-hand ground-floor room displays a mid-17th-century chamfered spine beam and joists, and an open fireplace with an ogee-stopped wooden lintel. A left-hand ground-floor room features a pair of 18th-century plastered beams, a moulded cornice, and an 18th-century wall cupboard adjacent to the fireplace, with raised and fielded panels, H-hinges, and shaped shelves. An 18th-century dog-leg staircase rises to the attic, featuring a closed string, turned balusters, a turned newel post, a moulded handrail, and a simple Chinese Chippendale balustrade to the attic flight. Original 18th-century four-panelled and boarded doors are found throughout.

The cruck truss appears to have been a former central open truss of an open hall and now separates the lower kitchen block from the main part of the house. The kitchen ceiling frame and the right-hand stack were likely inserted into the hall in the late 16th century, while the ceiling in the right-hand room of the main part of the house may be a late 17th-century insertion or remnants of a later partial rebuilding of the 15th-century house. The house underwent a near-total rebuild and extension to the left in the 18th century. It represents a good and largely unaltered example of a late 18th-century house, particularly notable for its earlier core.