Branch Farmhouse

Branch Farmhouse is a house dating back to approximately 1600, with a crosswing added in the mid-17th century, and further extended in the early 18th century. It was restored around 1980. The house is timber framed, with rendered and pargetted walls, and a narrow gault brick gable end wall dating to around 1720, which includes a blind panel below the stack. The roofs are steeply pitched and tiled, originally thatched, with a parapet to the 18th-century brick gable end. A gault brick ridge stack from the early 17th century features three grouped shafts set diagonally.

The house originally comprised a hall with a crosswing parallel to the road, and subsequently a lobby entry was added. The hall is a single storey with an attic, containing one dormer window and two 20th-century windows, with a doorway opposite the stack. The crosswing, of two storeys, has three small 20th-century windows.

The interior of the hall has three bays, including the chimney bay. It exhibits straight bracing to the wall frame and wind bracing to the clasped side purlin roof, with substantial inserted timber in the ceilings. The mid-17th-century crosswing, likely originally a parlour wing, features a stop-chamfered main beam and hearth lintel in one room, and a room above it is also heated. It has a similar roof but of lighter timber. The plan comprises two bays, extended by a further bay in the early 18th century.