Broom Hall

Broom Hall

A farmhouse built as a lobby-entry house, probably in the mid to late 17th century, and extended in the late 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

The building is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond, with a clay tile roof. It is L-shaped in plan, comprising a rectangular west range laid out on a north-south axis, and a perpendicular service wing on an east-west axis. Extensions were added to the north elevation in the 18th and 19th centuries, and to the east end of the service wing in the 19th century.

Broom Hall is a two-storey farmhouse with projecting extensions to the rear (north) elevation. The pitched roofs are clay tiled, with four red brick chimney stacks: the largest to the centre of the west range, two to the ridge of the service wing, and one to the gable end of the 19th-century extension. The ridge height of the western section is approximately 0.6m higher than the service wing, and approximately 1.2m higher than the 18th and 19th-century rear extensions. A single-storey porch and garden room with lean-to clay-tile roofs are located on the north and south elevations respectively. Cast-iron hoppers and rainwater goods survive, some renewed around 2015.

The walls have been recently repointed. The north and south elevations have shallow yellow brick buttresses added most likely in the 19th century, while a red brick buttress on the south elevation marks where the service wing was extended east around 1860. The west elevation of the west range has a substantial eaves course of angled bricks. The south elevation of the service wing has a plain eaves course broken by first-floor windows. The gables have plain bargeboards, apparently replaced around 2015.

Windows throughout the house are mostly two-over-two timber sash windows replaced in the 19th century. The south elevation of the west range and the easternmost bay of the service wing have tripartite windows on the ground floor dating from around 1860. The south elevation of the service wing retains a six-over-six pane timber sash window, indicating that the building was reoriented in the mid to late 18th century to maximise views over the garden. The 19th-century extension to the rear has a variety of late 19th-century casement and sash windows.

The largest door is on the west elevation of the west range: a six-panelled timber door, possibly 18th century, in a plain classical surround with engaged pilasters supporting a shallow dentilled cornice, opening onto a cantilevered stone step. The single-storey porch on the north elevation has a four-panelled timber door, most likely mid to late 19th century, within a shallow classical surround of engaged pilasters supporting a plain cornice. The service wing has a late 20th or early 21st-century glazed door to the garden, and the 19th-century rear extension has a plain timber door to the service yard.

Interior

The west range contains a mid to late 17th-century timber-framed clasped purlin roof with wind braces and timber pegs. Additional rafters were clearly added for support, probably in the 18th century, and a steel ridge beam was added around 2015.

The west range contains two rooms on the ground and first floors either side of the axial chimneystack. The north room of the ground floor was converted to a grand entrance hall in the mid to late 18th century, with an L-plan staircase rising along the north and east walls to the first floor, most likely replacing an earlier narrower stair. The 18th-century stair has an open string, moulded handrail, plain stick balusters and newel posts, and appears to have been remodelled in the mid to late 19th century. The floor of the entrance hall is laid with square terracotta tiles arranged in a polychromatic diamond pattern, with a section of brick flooring to the west of the chimneystack where the lobby-entry would have been.

The south rooms of the ground floor were remodelled as a drawing room and dining room in the 18th century. The fireplace of the drawing room was replaced and that of the dining room revealed around 2015, when a square opening was created between the two rooms replacing a single door opening at the south end of the east wall. The dining room retains a round-arched niche to the south of the fireplace, infilled by a cupboard in the 18th or 19th century.

From the entrance hall a corridor extends east along the north side of the service wing, to the north side of which there is a secondary stair in the 18th-century extension. The service range contains the kitchen, scullery, pantry and sitting room, and appears to retain its original floor plan, with three substantial chimney stacks in the kitchen, sitting room and scullery. The sitting room has exposed timber framing where the east gable partitions were removed around 1860 when the service wing was extended east by one bay. The kitchen retains a mid to late 18th-century window with shutters. The garden room, constructed to the south of the dining room around 1900, retains attractive perforated glazed tiles.

The plan form appears to survive intact on the first floor, with a corridor running along the north side of the service range and bedrooms to the west and south. The house retains late 18th or early 19th-century moulded door surrounds and timber-panelled doors throughout.

Subsidiary Features

The stable east of the house, constructed in the late 18th or early 19th century, is a single-storey red-brick structure with a pantile roof and retains a stable door on its south elevation. Perpendicular to the stable is a single-storey red-brick range containing a wood store, tool shed and potting shed, built around 1860. The gap between the sheds and the east end of the service wing was infilled by a garage around 1940. A flint and red brick wall extends south from the south-east corner of the house, representing a 19th-century outbuilding, since demolished.