Brockley Hall

Brockley Hall is a farmhouse and former manor house dating back to the late 13th or early 14th century, with alterations made in the 16th and 19th centuries. It may have been built for Alexander de Walsham, who held the manor from 1303 until around 1338. The house comprises a main hall range with two cross-wings. It is timber-framed and rendered with a glazed pantiled roof at the front and plaintiles at the rear. The chimneys are red brick, with the 16th-century parlour chimney on the left featuring crow-stepping. Most windows are 19th-century casements. The entrance door has six fielded panels and an oblong fanlight.

The main hall range consists of an aisled hall, 10.5 metres long and 8 metres wide, divided into two equal bays. The original, narrow cross-wing to the left was likely the parlour, with a solar room above. The cross-wing on the right was built around 1700, but it replaced an earlier service cell incorporating some of its original components. The open hall truss features a pair of octagonal arcade posts with moulded capitals, straight braces leading to the cambered tie-beam and arcade plate, and doubled passing-braces that clasp the post and tie-beam before connecting to the rafters. A similar closed truss is found at the parlour end of the hall, with plank-like bracing members and additional low-level bracing. The truss at the service end is significantly altered. Four additional tie-beams are present in the hall roof. The main coupled-rafter roofs of the hall and parlour wing remain largely unaltered. A cross-wing truss has a double-chamfered tie-beam, originally knee-braced, with some vestigial passing-braces. The quality of the original carpentry is exceptional. A chimney and first-floor level were inserted into the hall during the 16th century, in two phases. The parlour end was refurbished around 1800. A complete, probably contemporary, rectangular moat surrounds the property. It is designated as a Grade I listed building due to its rarity and the relative completeness of the aisled manor house, retaining some original aisle walling at the rear.