Brook House

Brook House is a house dating to the late 16th century, with alterations and additions in the 17th century and further conversion and extension in the 1950s. Originally a timber-framed and plastered house facing east, it now has an elongated L-plan with a central chimney. The layout included a central lobby entrance, a 2-storey hall range on the north and a large, 3-bay, 2-storey and attic cross wing to the south. A stairwell, situated within the angle of the wings, features its own gabled roof. The central chimney, incorporating back-to-back fireplaces at the junction of the wings, has stepped square shafts rising above the roofline. A hall fireplace was destroyed to create a vaulted tunnel through the chimney stack, linking a door to the stairwell. An additional 2-bay, timber-framed kitchen wing, with a gabled roof of old red tiles, extends to the rear (west) of the cross wing. This wing has a clasped purlin roof and a large chimney projection on its southern side, now capped off. Connected to the kitchen wing is a 3-bay, timber-framed, weatherboarded outhouse with a slate roof. Further two-storey plastered and tiled ranges extend north, having been converted from a former malting and extended for domestic use in the 1950s. The east front has 3-light and 4-light wooden casement windows with leaded glazing set within panelled pargetting. A central door has a heavy moulded doorframe and bracketed hood. A small 2-light early 17th-century ovolo-mullioned window is positioned above the door. Two oval plaster panels on the cross wing bear the inscription ‘TST’ ‘1672’, possibly indicating the date when the cross wing was remodelled internally, creating a small panelled room with a fireplace on the ground floor. Sections of the west wall and the northwest corner of the cross wing have been rebuilt in brick. On the first floor of the cross wing is a wide 4-centred arched brick fireplace with canted corners and a recessed back wall, along with two chamfered cross beams and an early 18th-century corner cupboard featuring a two-panelled door and decorative H-hinges. The attic above has a 4-bay, side-purlin roof, a large south gable, and an ovolo moulded mullioned 3-light front casement window with an iron opening light. The hall features a heavy axial beam with double cyma mouldings and bulbous faceted stops, resting on a moulded beam across the chimney supported by a flared corbel on the southeast corner post. This wing benefits from a clasped purlin roof with wind braces, and the floors are lower than those in the cross wing. A modern stairwell now provides access to the first floor of the former kitchen wing. The building represents a historic timber-framed central chimney house.