Longbrooks Cottages

Longbrooks Cottages is a house divided into two tenanted cottages in Paddock Wood. It probably dates from the mid-15th century in origin, with alterations made in the late 16th or early 17th century, and a rear addition added around 1950 following bomb damage.

The building is of timber-framed construction on brick footings, with the ground floor rendered and the first floor tile-hung. The east end has concrete tile-hanging. The roof is covered in peg tiles with brick stacks.

The house originally comprised a two-bay open hall, presumably with a cross passage entrance to the left of centre, a one-bay storeyed west end, and a one-bay jettied storeyed east end. The hall was floored over in the late 16th or early 17th century with an inserted stack, converting the entrance into a lobby arrangement. Following bomb damage, the house was repaired in the 1950s and a rear south-east kitchen wing was added in vernacular style.

The main front faces north and is two storeys tall. The roof is gabled at the left end and gabletted and hipped at the right. An axial stack has a staggered handmade brick shaft with a corbelled brick cornice (renewed), while a 20th-century stack sits at the right end. The north elevation is asymmetrical with three windows and a recessed porch with 20th-century plank doors leading into the two cottages. Windows throughout are timber casements in 19th and 20th-century style, mostly with glazing bars, with sizes ranging from two to four lights. The rear elevation has four windows to the main block and two to the 1950s wing, which is tile-hung with some scalloped tiles and jettied on both returns. A recessed porch with a 20th-century plank door serves the west cottage. The left (east) return of the main block is jettied on curved braces, with a 20th-century door into the east cottage and timber casement windows with glazing bars.

The interior preserves rich early carpentry. The late 16th or early 17th-century hall features a scroll-stopped beam on the long axis with exposed joists and a large open fireplace with brick jambs and a chamfered lintel with scroll stops. The fireplace incorporates two cupboards—one with an 18th-century two-panel door said to have been an oven, and a smaller cupboard with butterfly hinges. The higher end preserves a moulded, brattished dais beam from the late medieval phase. The inner room to the west has exposed joists, as does the east end room. A crossbeam in front of the party wall marks the east end of the open hall. The first floor preserves probably 17th-century doors. The west end cottage contains probably 18th-century pargetting in all first-floor rooms, a rare survival. The wall-framing includes step stops and wall posts with flared jowls. A blocked fireplace lies in the chamber over the hall.

The medieval crown post roof is well-preserved. Sooted closed partitions mark the ends of the open hall. The hall truss has an octagonal crown post on a chamfered base with a moulded capital and four-way up braces. The crown post tie-beam has a chamfered soffit and massive arch braces springing from about one metre above ground level, shaped to leave spaces where the spandrels would be. Plain crown posts in the partitions at the ends of the hall have two-way up braces and curved down braces. The roof over the east end has been partially rebuilt; it was formerly hipped.

This is a good example of a well-preserved evolved house of medieval origins.