The Rookery

The Rookery is a farmhouse dating from the early 16th century, with alterations around 1600. It features a three-cell Wealden open-hall design and stands two storeys high. The building is timber-framed and plastered, with both end cells jettied at the front and a recessed open hall in between. The roof is covered with concrete tiles, which were originally plain tiles, and includes an early 17th-century axial chimney made of buff brick, along with a later attached flue from the late 17th or 18th century constructed of red brick.

The windows are 20th-century casements, and there is a six-panelled early 19th-century entrance door located at the cross-entry position. Inside, the two-bay open hall features a crownpost roof. The open truss has a cambered arch-braced tie-beam, and one of the pilaster shafts with ornate carving remains beneath an archbrace. The central crownpost has an octagonal shaft with a moulded capital and base, supported by four-way braces, although one is missing. The lateral braces are decorative and not fixed to the collar. The close-studding is well-crafted with arch wind-bracing, and there is light smoke staining in the hall roof, indicating a ridge louvre.

Around 1600, an upper floor was added to the hall, featuring chamfered joists. A large open fireplace in the hall, made with pink and gault brickwork, backs onto the cross-passage and may predate the inserted floor. Additionally, a service wing was added to the rear of the parlour cell around 1600, which includes a large axial chimney and plain framing with a butt-purlin roof.