Brook Farmhouse Brookhayes

Brook Farmhouse and Brookhayes are two cottages forming a former farmhouse. The core of the building dates to the 17th century, with significant rearrangement and extension in the early 19th century. The construction is of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with cob, stone rubble, and brick stacks, and a slate roof, originally thatched.

The original 17th-century farmhouse comprised a two-room layout with a central through-passage and end stacks. Brook Farmhouse now occupies the front portion of the passage and the right (south-western) room of the original farmhouse, with a two-storey service extension to the rear of its right end. Brookhayes occupies the rear part of the passage and the left room, with a one-room extension at the left end and a service extension to the rear of the passage. The façade is irregular, with a total of five window openings—three to Brookhayes and two to Brook Farmhouse. Brookhayes has 20th-century casement windows without glazing bars, and a 20th-century door with a contemporary gabled and slate-roofed porch. Brook Farmhouse has 19th and 20th-century casements with glazing bars, and a late 19th-century part-glazed panelled door; this is recessed behind a 20th-century flat-roofed aluminium-framed porch. The roof is gable-ended.

The interior of the 17th-century farmhouse remains largely intact, especially on the ground floor. The right room, now belonging to Brook Farmhouse and likely formerly the parlour, exhibits a soffit-chamfered crossbeam with bar-scroll stops. A blocked fireplace is present, with a section of the soffit-chamfered and scroll-stopped oak lintel still visible. A winder stair, probably original, is located to the left, with a door hung on H-L hinges. The left room within Brookhayes also has a soffit-chamfered and scroll-stopped crossbeam, and a blocked fireplace. The door to the rear passage is also hung on H-L hinges. The roof is not accessible but appears to have been rebuilt in the 19th century at a higher level than its original form.