Cookley Farmhouse

Cookley Farmhouse is a timber-frame farmhouse, originally a hall house dating from the mid-14th century. A cross wing was added around 1470, and the building was altered around 1550, with minor changes in the 19th and 20th centuries. The exterior is of plastered and colourwashed timber frame, with a concrete tile roof.

The north-south wing is two storeys high. The south cross wing features two storeys and a dormer attic. The west front has a late 20th-century stud-and-plank door, centrally positioned, flanked by a 2-light and a 3-light 20th-century casement window. A former doorway in the angle with the south wing has been blocked. A mid-16th-century 3-light hollow-mullioned window is on the first floor. The gabled roof has a late 16th-century ridge stack with four continuous diamond flues, set slightly right of centre. The east front has a three-window range, with a half-glazed 20th-century door behind a conservatory. Most windows are 2- and 3-light 19th-century casements, except for the central first-floor window, which is mid-16th century and has 3-light hollow-moulded mullions. The south cross wing has 20th-century 2- and 3-light casements. The attic wall plate contains mortices indicating where projecting mullioned windows formerly stood, lighting a late 15th-century first-floor solar on the east and west sides.

The interior features opposing doorways leading to a screens passage. A mid-14th-century timber plank and muntin screen with a central opening, squared in the 20th century, remains. The muntins are chamfered, and traces of red ochre paint remain. South of the passage is a former open hall, floored around 1550. Bridging beams have a double wave moulding on their west halves and plain chamfered edges on their east halves. The timber frame is of heavy scantling, with principal posts hollow chamfered. A wide brick fireplace, under a chamfered bressumer, was inserted in the late 16th century. North rooms were originally service rooms, featuring 17th-century chamfered bridging beams. A 20th-century winder staircase is located to the east of the stack. The south cross wing features two bridging beams with raised tongue stops bearing triangular incised motifs.

A first-floor hall was inserted around 1550, and the north-south range was re-roofed, comprising four bays. Hollow chamfered wall posts with jowled tops carry arched braces with roll and hollow mouldings, supported on polygonal moulded corbels. The braces continue into cambered tie beams with continuous roll and hollow mouldings. One tier of wave moulded joists butt into the tie beams. A double wave moulded ridge piece is present. One north tie beam is straight cut to the rear and the arched brace rests on a terminal corbel. Blackened joists north of this indicate the location of a mid-16th-century stack. The roof structure includes two tiers of butt purlins, collars, and curved windbraces. The cross wing has a frame with jowled principal posts and a queen-strut roof with curved windbraces and cambered collars.