Brook House

Brook House, Bitterley, Middleton

A farmhouse and house comprising a late 16th-century timber-framed building with early 18th-century brick extensions.

The structure displays an H-shaped plan, with a three-bay 16th-century framed range connected to a three-bay cross wing and a two-storey gabled outshut, alongside a two-bay brick 18th-century end extension range with its own cross wing. The house occupies the framed cross wing, while the remainder serves as a farmhouse.

Materials include painted timber-frame on a stone rubble plinth, brick on a low brick plinth with storey bands, and a plain-tile roof fitted with 19th-century ornamental bargeboards and finials. Two central ridge stacks rise from the roof—one stone stack with three brick star-shaped shafts linked by an 18th-century cap, and one plain brick stack. A projecting rendered stack with brick shaft serves the outshut to the south, while an integral 19th-century brick eaves stack sits to the north.

The building stands two storeys high with an attic and cellar. The north-east front presents the main range split between framed sections to the left and brick sections to the right, flanked by cross wing gable-ends. The left side shows three framed bays with square framing three panels high, underbuilt with 18th-century brick and partially masked by a 19th-century tile-roofed brick lean-to housing the house entrance. Windows here include a two-light leaded casement above a multi-pane ground-floor casement. The cross wing gable at the far left displays square framing of three panels per storey with a jettied ovolo-moulded bressumer and tension braces at each floor. Its end roof truss features a high collar, twin raking struts, and vertical struts with middle rails framing a three-light casement, with a straight ovolo-moulded tie beam. Three-light casements appear at both ground and first floors, the ground-floor set upon a 16th-century cyma-moulded projecting sill on carved console brackets. To the right stands the 18th-century brick range of two storeys with two-window bays containing 6/6 restored sashes, one brick-blocked at ground level, with moulded cases and brick arches throughout. The far-right cross wing gable holds two 6/6 sashes at first-floor level above two two-light casements at ground floor and one 18th-century casement at attic level.

The south-east return features square framing three panels high per storey with a three-light casement above 20th-century French windows in framed original positions. The north-west return contains the farmhouse entrance door beneath a hipped tiled canopy, with a lean-to masking the ground floor to the right.

The south-west rear shows the cross wing gable-end framing mirroring the front elevation with a rendered end truss and a 19th-century sash at first-floor level. Three bays of the main range display square framing three panels per floor, with three-light casements at both floors in the middle bay and a canopied boarded door to the left; the right-hand bay is masked by a two-storey outshut with square framing, twin raking-strut truss, and two-light casements. The 18th-century brick range to the left holds two-storey two-window bays: 6/6 sashes at first floor and 8/8 and 6/6 sashes at ground floor. The far-left cross wing gable contains two 8/8 sashes at first floor (one reset), a two-light 18th-century attic casement, and a 20th-century ground-floor door and window.

Interior features include the framed cross wing with deep-chamfered bridging and cross bridging beams and ovolo-moulded posts at ground and first-floor levels, a square-framed cross partition, and three boarded creased doors with moulded ledges. The roof above comprises a three-bay single trenched-purlin roof with one open and one closed internal trusses, each featuring a high collar, raking struts, and posts. The main range framed bays contain deep-chamfered posts and beams, some ovolo-moulded, beneath a double trenched-purlin roof with three trusses: two open with high collar and vertical struts, and one closed with struts and middle rails. The 18th-century range features a 17th-century dog-leg staircase remodelled in the 18th century and a complete 18th-century panelled room at first-floor level, with a double trenched-purlin roof displaying a truss of high collar and raking struts, all members chamfered. The 18th-century cross wing roof is a double trenched-purlin structure with two trusses of shouldered principals forming upper crucks with cruck spurs, high collar, and low-level raking struts.