Cottage At Brook Willow Farm

LEATHERHEAD RANDALLS ROAD TQ/15/NW Pachesham 2/157 (west side, off) 1.6.77 Cottage at Brook Willow Farm

GV II

Farmhouse, now house. Probably late C14, altered and enlarged in C16 or C17; altered and restored in C20. Timber frame on rendered plinth, with modern brick nogging, red tile roof. Linear plan on east-west axis, probably originally consisting of an open hall with a lofted service or parlour bay at its east end, but the former hall mostly reduced to a lean-to and a later addition built against the east end of the service bay. Large-panel timber framing is fully exposed on both sides, with sills, full-height wallposts, low mid-rails, wall-plates, intermediate rails and studs, and large braces to the rail and the wall-plates, some of these with carpenter's marks in the form of large scratched Roman numerals. On the south side the wide centre (the lofted eastern portion of the original building) has wallposts jointed near the tops and slightly curved braces on 2 levels, the narrower 3rd bay to the right has braces from the corner post, and to the left of the centre bay the mid-rail runs out into the lean-to (formerly the hall); and there are restored wooden mullion windows of 4, 1, 4, and 3 lights at ground floor, 1 and 3 lights above. Hipped roof of shallow pitch, with chimney rising through slope at west end. Modern lean-to porch in similar materials at east end. On the north side the framing is less regular: the right- hand (west) post of the centre bay has large curved braces on both sides, but to the left the matching brace is jointed to a stud rising from the mid-rail, and this rail is jointed inside the centre bay, the joint supported by a stud and the rail braced from this stud and from the right-hand post; and the rail to the right of this post runs a short distance into the lean-to at the west end. This elevation now has windows of 3 and 2 lights at ground floor, 2, 3, and 1 lights above. Interior: the principal features of interest are a massive arch-braced cambered tie-beam at the junction of the centre bay and the former hall to the west (the south brace cut away to make a doorway); large curved down-braces in the opposite wall (which was formerly the east end but is now the partition to the added east bay) one with exposed wattle-and-daub panelling; 2 cusped lights of a wooden window found in this wall but now relocated at ground floor; chamfered spine beams on both floors; and an inserted chimney stack with back- to-back inglenook fireplaces. Reference: LDLHS History (1988) pp 57-8.

Listing NGR: TQ1482158068