Porch House

This is a substantial house, dating to the 17th century, located on Brooke’s Street. The house is constructed of brick in English bond, with some flint visible below the windows, and was formerly colour-washed and rendered. The roof is covered in pantiles, replacing a previous thatch covering. Originally, the house comprised three rooms, with a later range added at a right angle to the rear.

The north facade is four bays wide, with two storeys. A prominent, gabled brick porch stands slightly off-centre, featuring corner pilasters that have remnants of a render imitating ashlar. The porch contains a C19 studded door within an ovolo-moulded frame, above which is an inserted fanlight with a segmental arch. Moulded brick platbands with two pediments adorn the porch and windows. The left-hand bay of the facade lacks ground and first-floor windows. To the left of the porch, a four-light casement window sits on the ground floor, while a three-light casement occupies the right-hand ground floor. Both are set within larger, partially blocked openings with brick drops and triangular pediments. The first floor has two casement windows in similarly enlarged openings, also with brick drops. The gable of the porch features a roundel. A large axial stack is centrally positioned. A C20 sun-room has been added to the right-hand (west) gable. The rear wall has a single bay with a sash window at both ground and first floor levels, and a moulded brick platband. A stair bay, likely of C19 origin, now has a flat roof extending across the rear elevation. The east gable has two three-light leaded casements on the ground floor, with brick drops and triangular pediments above. A single three-light leaded casement sits above, possibly retaining its original ovolo-moulded frame. An attic window, also in a partially blocked opening, completes the gable with further drops and a segmental pediment. The corner pilasters retain traces of render imitating ashlar.

Running south at a skew from the east gable is a contemporary range of three bays, two storeys high. This range includes a C20 window, a blocked doorway, and a six-light leaded casement, with drops and a triangular pediment above. Another casement window sits on the upper floor, and a gable-end stack is incorporated into a single-storey bay with raised eaves, dating back to the 1970s. The rear of the 17th-century range has been rebuilt using C18 Flemish bond brick, characterised by black headers.

Inside, an archway has been created to provide access to the stair outshut from the main stack. The ground and first floors feature ovolo-moulded beams, with elaborately decorated stops in the northern range. In the ground floor, the two bays to the left of the stack have been combined into one room, exhibiting mortices in the underside of one of the beams. The roof is of C18 construction, with staggered purlins.