Brook Cottage

Brook Cottage

Small farmhouse of early to mid 17th-century date, extensively modernised circa 1949 following bomb-shock damage sustained in the Second World War, with further modernisations undertaken circa 1980. The building is timber-framed on brick footings and clad with peg-tile above first floor level, with a brick stack and chimneyshaft and a peg-tile roof.

The plan follows a 2-room lobby entrance arrangement, with the main block facing north-west. The left (north-eastern) room was probably the kitchen and the right room the hall. Stairs rise within a turret projecting to the rear of the stack. Rear service blocks were either newly built or substantially altered circa 1949, though evidence suggests there was originally an unheated room to the rear of the parlour, possibly a buttery or dairy.

The main block is 2 storeys with attics contained in the roofspace, accompanied by 2-storey and single-storey ancillary blocks to the rear.

Externally, the timber framing is close-studded. The front elevation is essentially symmetrical, featuring 2 ground floor windows and 4 windows at first floor level, all 20th-century replacements with ovolo-moulded mullions, iron casements and diamond panes of leaded glass. Similar windows appear around the rest of the main block, and some retain old glass, with certain panes tinged green. The disposition of windows has been altered in places; evidence on the front frame indicates there were originally 4 ground floor windows. A central doorway contains an original oak frame with richly-moulded surround and holds a 20th-century Tudor-style door with coverstrips and ornate strap hinges. A gabled timber-framed porch is 20th-century work but incorporates reused timbers, with side windows featuring grilles of turned balusters. A similar smaller porch exists at the rear of the left end wall. The main roof is tall and steeply pitched, half-hipped at both ends; the stair turret also has a half-hipped roof and is flanked by flat-roofed extensions. Behind these stands a Victorian animal house that has been converted to domestic use.

Internally, the supposed kitchen contains an ovolo-moulded axial beam with bar-scroll stops and a large brick fireplace with a plain oak lintel. By contrast, the parlour has a chamfered and scroll-stopped crossbeam and a sandstone ashlar fireplace with a Tudor arch, moulded surround and sunk spandrels. Both first floor chambers feature chamfered axial beams with scroll stops, with renovated brick fireplaces and plain oak lintels. Where framing is exposed at first floor level, it comprises large framing with curving tension braces. The roof consists of 3 uneven bays with tie-beam trusses and clasped side purlins. The stair has been refurbished with square newel posts bearing teardrop finials and turned balusters. Evidence of the small original room behind the parlour is preserved in a 4-panel intersecting beam ceiling there.

The house underwent extensive and expensive renovation to a high standard circa 1949, with material introduced at that date including oak small-field panelling in the main rooms and lobby, Delft tiles in the parlour fireplace, and Tudor-style doors with good ornate strap hinges.