The Rookery

The Rookery is a house dating from the mid-16th century, constructed with a timber frame and featuring brick and wattle and daub infill, which is plastered and whitewashed. The roof is covered with pantiles. The building has a half H plan with an extension to the west and consists of two storeys plus an attic in the west gable extension.

The south front is characterized by two large gables, one at the east end and the other at the west, both flush with the main range. The main range includes a large stepped external stack with a rebuilt rectangular brick flue. There is a doorway in the east gable, and the windows consist of various 18th-century casements arranged in a seemingly random pattern. The gabled main roof features a central ridge stack. The west gable has a blocked three-light 16th-century ovolo moulded mullioned window on the ground floor and a louvred ovolo mullioned attic window. A similar window is found in the cellar, while an 18th-century casement is located on the first floor. The junction of the west gable and the projecting northwest gable is marked by a large rectangular stack. The north side of the main range has similar fenestration to the south. The east gable is lit by a three-light mullioned window and a three-light 18th-century casement on the first floor.

Inside, the lounge features sunk quadrant moulded bridging beams and a 20th-century fireplace. There is small framed panelling in the ground floor room of the east cross wing, along with another sunk quadrant moulded bridging beam. The fireplace has been rebuilt but retains a timber overmantel from around 1630, which includes three arched and decorated bays, central pilasters with caryatids, and a punched frieze. An early 18th-century corner shell cupboard is also present. The house has two staircases: a winder by the stack and a west staircase made of oak boards. The timber frame includes arched braces at the corners on the first floor. The roof of the west wing features tie beams, two tiers of butt purlins, and collars, while the roof of the main range has ties on arched braces, diminished principals, two tiers of purlins (with the tower tier butted and the upper clasped), and cambered collars.