Brookes Farmhouse

Brookes Farmhouse

House, dating from the 15th and early 16th centuries, with alterations made in the late 16th, 17th, 18th and 20th centuries. The building is timber-framed with plastered exterior and a roof of handmade red plain tiles.

The house comprises multiple sections built at different periods. The main element is an early 16th-century two-bay hall range facing south-east, with an internal stack at its right end (rebuilt in 1986). To its right stands a 15th-century three-bay service crosswing extending to the rear, also with an internal stack at the rear left (rebuilt in 1986). A 17th-century single-bay extension projects to the rear of the crosswing, substantially wider than the crosswing itself, followed by a 20th-century single-storey extension. To the rear right of the hall range is a 17th-century stair tower, with a 20th-century extension to its left. To the left of the hall range is an early 16th-century three-bay parlour or solar crosswing extending rearward. An 18th-century external stack stands to the left of the middle bay of this wing (partly rebuilt in 1986) and is enclosed by an 18th-century single-storey lean-to extension, with a 20th-century extension to the rear of this crosswing. The building is two storeys tall, with a front elevation of three windows of 20th-century casement style, a 20th-century door within a 20th-century gabled porch, and the roof of the hall range oversailing both crosswings to form a gablet at each end.

The hall range has been substantially altered over the centuries but originally stood 3.35 metres high to the wallplates with jowled posts and curved braces trenched outside the studding. A cross-entry at the right end is now blocked by the stack; jointing evidence remains for an arched doorhead at the front. The walls were raised by approximately one metre in the 18th century with primary straight bracing and much renewed studding, and the roof was rebuilt with a ridge, though some smoke-blackened rafters with trenches for collars survive. The mid-16th-century inserted floor comprises a transverse beam, two joggled longitudinal bridging beams, and square joists, all chamfered with step stops. The right bridging beam is offset to the rear with no original jointing for joists in front of it, creating a large aperture apparently framed round a pre-existing timber chimney that allowed the cross-entry to remain unobstructed. A brick chimney was inserted around 1600, positioned further to the right to block the cross-entry, and the remaining aperture was filled by joists of vertical section supported at the front on pegged clamps.

The right crosswing comprises two bays of normal size and a rear bay measuring 1.22 metres, designed as a smoke bay. It has jowled posts, curved braces trenched outside heavy studding, and was originally jettied to the front; the upper storey has been cut back to align with the lower storey, and the gable was altered to a hip, probably in the 18th century. Diamond mortices and shutter grooves for unglazed windows survive in the right wall, with two at each storey, though replacement of part of one girt in 1986 has destroyed evidence of one ground-floor window. The wallplates feature edge-halved and bridled scarfs. Plain joists of horizontal section run longitudinally in the front bay to support the former jetty and transversely in the middle bay, jointed to the binding beam with unrefined soffit tenons. A blocked stair trap lies in the middle bay. The rear bay was originally open from ground to roof. The roof is a crownpost roof with axial braces of shallow curvature; the collar-purlin terminates at the crownpost in front of the smoke bay and is heavily smoke-blackened throughout, indicating that the smoke bay was vented to both ends of the roof. The inserted stack later replaced this arrangement. The 17th-century extension to the rear has primary straight bracing and a clasped purlin roof.

The left crosswing has jowled posts, curved bracing trenched outside heavy studding, edge-halved and bridled scarfs in both wallplates, and chamfered posts and wallplates with step stops. One complete unglazed window survives at the rear of the ground floor with three diamond mullions set in a cross-member below the girt. Diamond mortices and shutter grooves of other windows mark the side and rear. Evidence remains of a former doorway from the hall to the rear bay with a mortice for a draught screen, and large-diameter pegs indicating a former fixed bench in the hall. Plain joists of horizontal section (with modern chamfers) are jointed to binding beams mainly with unrefined soffit tenons, but in the front bay and around the framed stair trap in the rear bay soffit tenons with diminished haunches are used. The combination of both forms of jointing in the same floor structure is rare or unique, but both are original, which suggests construction shortly after 1510, when the newer form was superseding the older. The carpenter's assembly marks on the joists follow the Brentwood or cellular system, numbered from I to IIII in the front bay, V to VIII in the middle bay, and VIIII to XII in the rear bay. Both internal tiebeams are cambered and chamfered with step stops, with mortices for two braces to the front tiebeam and one to the rear (which has inserted studding). The roof is a crownpost roof, now hipped at the front with a gablet hip at the rear; hip rafters are missing. One axial brace to the collar purlin survives in the middle bay, now matched by a 20th-century inserted brace; no mortices for other braces remain. This wing was formerly jettied to the front, cut back in the 18th century, with some evidence of a former oriel below the jetty.

A major restoration was carried out in 1986 and 1987, during which all groundsills and footings were renewed, unstable stacks were partly or wholly rebuilt, some re-used timber was introduced to repair or complete the frame, and all external surfaces were renewed. Measured drawings by Richard Shackle of the Essex Historic Buildings Group have been deposited with the National Monuments Record and Essex Record Office.