Farm Cottage And Rook Farmhouse

This is a house, divided into two separate dwellings, Farm Cottage and Rook Farmhouse. The main structure dates back to the 18th century, although it incorporates elements of an earlier building, potentially of medieval origin. Alterations were made around the early to mid-19th century, and further additions were added in the 20th century. The house is constructed of rendered brick, with some internal timber framing. It has a concrete tile roof with gabled ends, and brick axial and gable-end stacks.

The house originally had a three-room plan with an integral outshut at the rear. Number 89 occupies the left-hand room, with a gable-end stack, while Number 91 occupies the larger central room, featuring a fireplace in the axial stack, and a smaller right-hand room with a gable-end stack. The right-hand bay, and rear wings, are later 20th-century additions. The front has an asymmetrical arrangement with four windows. The southeast-facing front is rendered and features 20-pane sash windows and a central panelled and glazed door set within a later timber and glazed porch. The right-hand section is a 20th-century addition.

Inside Number 89's left-hand room there are two chamfered cross-beams with hollow-step stops, a brick fireplace with an oven and an iron door, and a large storey-post in the original rear wall. The central and right-hand rooms of Number 91 have been combined, with a partition removed, and have light scantling chamfered and bead-moulded cross-beams. The axial stack fireplace features a chamfered cambered bressumer, the chamfer running into rebuilt brick jambs. The smaller right-hand room has a brick fireplace with a reused chamfered cambered timber bressumer, and exposed timber framing to the rear wall. On the first floor, there are 18th-century two-panel doors, with a moulded plank door and panelled overmantel to the left of the fireplace in the right-hand chamber.

The roof over Number 91’s centre rooms is an 18th-century five-bay design, while the roof over Number 89’s left-hand room is a three-bay design. Both have collar-and-tie beams with clasped purlins, intermediate collars with birdsmouth joints, and intact common-rafter couples. Some reused smoke-blackened common-rafters are present over the center rooms. Overall, this is a good example of an 18th-century rebuilding of an earlier house.