Brook Farmhouse

Brook Farmhouse is a late 15th-century farmhouse with 16th and 17th-century additions and alterations. It is timber-framed, with colourwashed render and a plain tiled roof. The building has a three-cell plan, originally featuring an open hall. The front of the house has an entrance door centrally positioned, aligned with a screen passage, and a gabled porch in front. To the left of the porch is a window with four panes over three, and to the right are two similar windows, plus one with three panes over three. The first floor has four windows, each with four panes over four, all having a central casement light. A chimney stack with two flues is located on the right-hand ridge, and a later two-flue stack is to the left. The right-hand gable end has a 20th-century French window on the ground floor, and a first-floor window with three panes over three and a 2-light attic casement. A slightly recessed 19th or 20th-century addition is to the right of this gable. The left-hand gable end has ground and first-floor windows, each with four panes over three and a central casement. The rear of the house has single-storey projecting gabled service additions on the right and left. To the right of these additions is a ground-floor window with four panes over three and a central casement, and a first-floor single-light window. Centrally are a two-light and a three-light casement, and on the first floor to the right is a 19th-century three-light casement and to the left a 16th-century window with six casement lights and diamond-section mullions. To the first floor, to the left of this is a cross window and a window of five lights with diamond-section mullions. A single-light casement is at the ground floor far left. Inside, the present sitting room, formed from the lower area of the original open hall, features 16th-century chamfered ceiling beams and joists with broach stops. The present dining room was originally two service rooms. The kitchen is likely a 17th-century addition and was originally a parlour with panelling featuring moulded muntins and a continuous cross-rail to three walls. There is a ceiling beam with doubled angle beads and decorative end stops, with plain joists, suggesting the ceiling was originally plastered. A baffle-entry plan with a winder staircase was inserted during the building of the chimney in the late 16th or early 17th century. The first-floor rooms retain chamfered ceiling beams and close studding. A 4-centred fireplace surround of moulded brick is also present, along with an open truss with braces forming a 4-centred arch.