The Old House

The Old House

Two houses, later joined together and subsequently part of Brentwood School, now operating as a community centre. The building dates from the 16th century, around 1600, the early 18th century, early 19th century, and late 19th century. It is constructed of red brick with a roof of peg tiles and slates.

The south front elevation presents two distinct facades. The eastern facade is a 6-bay 18th-century frontage in red brick with giant end pilasters, a shaped brick cornice and stone-capped parapet. A string course runs between the storeys. Windows feature rubbed brick voussoirs and brick keystones. The second bay from the east breaks forward slightly in front of an early 17th-century stack with six shafts diagonally clustered and a peg-tiled roof. The first-floor window of this articulated bay has a shaped brick head and rusticated surround. A door once positioned below has been skilfully replaced by a window. All windows are flush-framed sashes with glazing bars, mostly with 3 by 4 panes, though the east end bay has 4 by 4 panes. Three flat-headed dormer windows sit behind the parapet, not aligned with the windows below. These are 20th-century renewals: two casements with 3 by 3 panes and one sash with 3 by 3 panes.

The western facade is a taller early 18th-century frontage of three bays with a wooden cornice and parapet. Early 19th-century projecting bow windows extend through both storeys, constructed of different brick and cutting through earlier work. An early 19th-century ground-floor central door features a simple pilaster surround with two upper panels now glazed and two lower panels. The doorway reveals are similar in treatment, with a semicircular fanlight and cornice hood. A ground-floor 3-cant bay window to the west of the central door has a stuccoed cornice. Ground-floor windows consist of three in the bay and two in the bow, all sashes with stuccoed reveals and glazing bars showing 3 by 4 panes. First-floor sashes have glazing bars with 3 by 4 panes, while the single central sash in the bow has 4 by 4 panes. Two dormer windows in the slate mansard roof are casements with 3 by 3 panes.

The north rear elevation reflects the eastern unit, which is timber-framed with a broad gabled stair tower rising to the attic in line with the early 17th-century stack. The stair tower has an upper 20th-century fixed light and a first-floor 20th-century 2-light casement window with 4 by 3 panes. The roof is of 20th-century flat tiles with a flat-roofed 20th-century dormer to the west of the stair tower, fitted with a 2-light casement window with 4 by 3 panes. The rear wall is rendered but largely obscured by a 20th-century flat-roofed ground-floor addition with a 2-leaved plain door, one fixed window, and a 6-panelled door with two top-opening casement lights above. The west face of this addition is a 19th-century brick garden wall.

The western unit features an early 19th-century 2-storey bow window on the rear with three ground-floor French windows with stucco sills and glazing bars, each showing 2 by 4 panes, and three first-floor sash windows with slight segment heads, rubbed brick voussoirs and stuccoed reveals and sills, each with glazing bars and 3 by 4 panes. To the west is a 19th-century 2-window unit slightly projecting with a flat roof behind the parapet contiguous with the bowed section. A first-floor sash window has a segment head with glazing bars and 3 by 4 panes, whilst a flat-headed sash has glazing bars and 4 by 4 panes. On the ground floor, a 20th-century recessed glazed porch and door are present. The west bay is 20th-century rendered and colourwashed with 20th-century casement windows on ground and first floors. A slate mansard roof with a cruciform stack to the east features three flat-roofed dormer windows: one with 2 by 2 panes, one with 3 by 2 panes, and one with 4 by 2 panes.

Interior

The eastern unit contains a fragment of a medieval rear wall on the ground floor in the north-east corner, featuring a window mullion hole and shutter rebate. A fragment of late medieval ceiling joists survives, running towards the adjoining property to the east. The stair tower now contains a modern stair but appears to have been deepened, evident from a break in the framing. The stack, rear timber wall, and cased storey posts, with an off-centre stack accommodating the 18th-century facade adapted to the older house beneath, all suggest both a medieval phase and an early 17th-century 3-celled lobby entrance house as the core. The roof is of early 17th-century butt side purlin type, with dormers cut through later, involving crude cutting away of purlins to provide head height.

The western unit contains an early 19th-century open-string stair with a delicate mahogany handrail and slender main balusters featuring stylised tread brackets and a ground-floor newel with reeded decoration and Egyptian leaf ornament. Cased beams behind the bow windows at back and front indicate their addition to originally early 18th-century flat facades.

The Old House, together with the Hermitage, Roden House, Mitre House, and Newnum House of Brentwood School, along with the monument to William Hunter, form a group.