Bradfield Manor Farmhouse

Bradfield Manor Farmhouse is a former mediaeval hall, now a farmhouse, dating from the 15th century. It has undergone significant alterations and reductions in size, particularly after 1670 following a visit by Aubrey, when a west range and gatehouse were demolished. An east block was added in the early 17th century, and the interior of the hall was subdivided in the late 17th century. Further subdivision and an extension to the north wing occurred in the 19th century.

The house now presents a U-shaped plan, incorporating the original open hall with a 17th-century block attached to the north-east corner and a north-west wing to the rear. The construction is of coursed rubble with ashlar flush rusticated quoins and copings, ashlar buttresses to the hall, stone dressings, and stone slate roofs—gabled to the hall and hipped to the 17th-century block. There are two end stacks to the hall, one of stone and one of brick, and three tall stone stacks on the diagonal to the 17th-century block, along with a stone stack with a brick cap to the outside wall of the staircase tower in the rear angle.

The south front of the hall is two storeys and six bays. The three left-hand bays feature 2- and 3-light ovolo mullion windows with small-paned glazing and hoodmoulds. A Tudor-arched doorway has double wave moulding and an early 19th-century bracketed flat hood on projecting jambs, leading to a 6-panel door with three glazed lights. Two 2-light pointed-arched Perpendicular windows with cinquefoil-cusped heads and quatrefoils above, and hoodmoulds, are situated to the right. Two buttresses separate these windows, followed by a 4-light ground floor Perpendicular chamfered-mullion window under a flat head with a hoodmould and small-paned glazing with outer cast-iron bars. Above this window is a 3-light hollow-moulded mullion under a flat head. Four similar windows are also present on the east wall. The 17th-century block is three storeys high with a cellar, and features 2- and 3-light cross-mullions, some blocked, others with small-paned glazing. It has a moulded plinth course and two continuous moulded string courses. The north front of the hall includes one blocked traceried Perpendicular window, identical to those on the south front, and another blocked single-light Perpendicular window.

Inside, the hall has been subdivided, with the right-hand ground floor dining room featuring a complex moulded late 17th-century cornice. The roof structure of the hall is a through-purlin design, with soot-blackened arched braces to the collars, indicating an original open hall. The 17th-century range was derelict at the time of a resurvey in April 1986. An oak staircase with turned balusters is located in the tower, providing access to rooms of fine proportions but now lacking their original pine panelling and chimneypieces. One plain chimneypiece with a basket-handle arch is situated on the second floor. The building was initially thought to be a 14th-century priory, but is now believed to have been built as a 15th-century hall in the “old Gothic fashion” by John Russell.