Brishing Court

Brishing Court is a farmhouse of the early 15th century, substantially altered during the 16th and 17th centuries. It is timber-framed with rendered infilling, plain tile roof, and sits on a stone plinth.

The building is a Wealden-type house with an open hall of two unequal-length bays and storeyed end bays. The right end bay is longer than the left and incorporates an undershot cross-passage. The left hall bay and the left half of the right hall bay were floored in the 16th century. A smoke-bay, possibly with an enclosed hearth, was formed across the front three-quarters of the right half of the right hall bay, leaving a passage to the rear on the ground floor and a partitioned void on the first floor. A 17th-century stack was later inserted in the smoke bay.

The house has two storeys and an attic. The end bays are jettied on filleted solid-spandrel brackets, with jetties returning to the rear. The left jetty is supported on a moulded dragon post, the right on a plain post. The studding is broadly spaced. The cross-passage is delineated by principal posts. An ogee tension brace appears in the left end bay, the right hall bay (on both floors), and the right end bay. An arch brace spans over the cross-passage. A short spur with a solid-spandrel bracket under protrudes from the central truss post just above the midrail, carrying a jowled post that butts under the central tie-beam and supports the flying wall-plate on the side away from the house. Below the flying wall-plate, another bracketed spur protrudes forward from the jowled post, supporting an outer wall-plate at the same level. This outer wall-plate runs around the entire house, supported on short spurs protruding from principal posts, forming an unusual feature.

The roof is hipped with a gablet to the left. A multiple brick stack rises through the front slope of the roof at the right hall bay. There is a hipped two-light dormer. Fenestration is irregular, comprising three leaded mullioned and transomed windows: a four-light window with pegged cill to the left end bay, an eight-light window to the left hall bay, and an eight-light window to the right end bay. A deep short pegged cill sits towards the centre of the left end bay on the ground floor. A blocked doorway to the cross-passage lies at the left end of the right end bay, and a later blocked doorway is to the left end of the hall. A lean-to with stone ground floor and rendered gable is attached to the right gable end, incorporating a door. A single-storey rear addition with a stack lies to the right.

The interior features exposed framing, with most members chamfered. The left end-of-hall beam is moulded and brattished, with ogee braces to the partition above. The rear window of the left hall bay has a broad cill. The central truss posts are plain-chamfered, with a cambered tie-beam morticed for braces meeting towards the centre. A chamfered crown-post stands on a chamfered base, braced to the collar purlin and to long sous-laces. Plain crown-posts appear at the ends of the hall and at the truss to the right side of the cross-passage, with foot braces. Ashlar pieces are present. Smoke-blackened straw-daub walls of the smoke-bay survive in the roof, with mortice evidence for the smoke-bay below. A stone fireplace with plain-chamfered jambs lies to the left side of the stack.

A lean-to has been added to the right gable end, constructed with a stone ground floor and rendered gable.