Farmhouse At Rooks Nest Farm

Farmhouse at Rooks Nest Farm is a Grade II* listed house dating from the mid-17th century, with a later rear wing possibly built in 1701 and a brewhouse wing added in the 19th century. The front range is constructed of red brick in English bond, while the north side of the rear wing is timber framed and jettied, featuring brick infill with a coursed pattern below and a herring-bone pattern above the line of a former lean-to roof. The building has steep old red tile roofs and was originally designed as a two-storey house with an attic, featuring a cruciform layout, lobby entry, and a central chimney plan, likely with an earlier service wing at the rear.

The southern hall and northern parlour are complemented by a two-storey porch on one side and a stair turret on the opposite side of the central chimney. The rear wing, which is two storeys high, has a brick inscription reading 'RC 1701' on its southern wall and features a large former external chimney on its northern side, adjacent to the later four-bay brewhouse that projects to the north. The eastern front is symmetrical, showcasing a massive central chimney with four diagonal square shafts, a gabled porch with a three-light plastered brick mullioned window, and a wide square-headed chamfered doorway topped by a leaded fanlight. There are four-light mullioned and transomed leaded casement windows flanking the porch on both floors, along with a chamfered brick plinth and brick corbels at the ends of the front eaves. The southern gable includes three-light mullioned timber windows on the attic and two floors, set under segmental arches, while the rear wing has flush wooden casement windows.

Inside, the farmhouse features chamfered cross-beams, scratch-moulded paneling with upper lozenge-carved panels in the stair enclosure, and four-centred fireplaces in the southern room and the room above, along with a plastered fireplace with a fluted 18th-century cast iron basket grate in the northern room. The roof has clasped purlins with exposed curved wind braces in the stair turret. The staircase is adorned with elaborately moulded square finials and splat balusters at the landings.