The Rookery

The Rookery is a house with a core dating back to the 16th century, significantly altered in the 18th century and with a later 19th-century service range added to the rear. It is constructed of red brick with a hipped roof covered in glazed black pantiles. The house is two stories high and has four windows on the front elevation. These windows are flush-frame sashes with glazing bars, set beneath flat brick arches. There is one 20th-century five-light casement window with a segmental arch to the left side of the ground floor. The asymmetrical front doorway features a six-panel entrance door, the upper four panels glazed, and a rectangular fanlight, both set within panelled reveals. The doorway is framed by a reeded architrave with corner roundels, and a 20th-century plain tiled hood supported by wooden brackets. One ground floor room on the right side of the house retains a floorbeam with a double concave moulding and heavy, plain joists, likely dating back to the early 16th century; no other work from this period is visible. The house is believed to have been the inspiration for “The Rookery” in Charles Dickens’s novel David Copperfield, and it is listed for this group value association.