Bruckton Farmhouse

Bruckton Farmhouse

A house formerly a farmhouse, built in the late 15th or early 16th century, substantially remodelled, partly rebuilt and extended in the early to mid 17th century, with alterations from the early 18th and early 19th centuries. The building was heavily restored in the late 20th century. It is constructed of stone rubble, rendered and painted, with a rag slate roof featuring gabled ends. The lower left end has a lower-level roof. Stone rubble chimneys include an axial stack to the right of centre and a projecting gable-end stack at the left end.

Plan and Development

All that survives from the late Medieval house is the lower left end, which was originally open to the roof. During the first half of the 17th century, a floor was inserted into this section. The higher right end, including the passage, was rebuilt and extended on the same north-south axis but set forward of the original front wall. A wing was added behind the former hall. The existing plan largely reflects this early 17th-century remodelling and comprises four rooms and a cross-passage in the main range. The lower left end became a parlour heated from a gable-end stack. The smaller former hall to the right of the passage was another parlour with a fireplace at its higher right end. Beyond that lay a large unheated service room with a small room partitioned off at the extreme right. The kitchen was located in the wing behind the former hall and has a gable-end fireplace. The staircase was housed in a round turret at the angle between the rear wing and the cross-passage.

Early to mid 18th-century internal refurbishment is evidenced by two-panel doors, and again circa the early to mid 19th century a lofted outbuilding was constructed in the angle with the rear wing behind the higher end. In the late 20th century the house underwent heavy restoration and internal alteration, during which the partitions on either side of the cross-passage were removed.

Exterior

The house presents as two storeys with an asymmetrical 2:3 window arrangement on the east front. The lower left windows are set back. All windows are late 20th-century plastic casements fitted in original openings with timber lintels and slate sills. A doorway to the left of centre in the projecting right range retains a fine early 17th-century timber doorframe with cyma and ovolo moulding and ball-shaped stops. The frame has true mitres and a contemporary studded plank door with scratch moulding and decorated wrought-iron hinges, set beneath a chamfered timber lintel. The lower left gable end has a projecting stack and a later large raking buttress. The rear elevation features a gable-ended wing to the left of centre with a round stair turret in the lower right angle. All rear windows are 20th-century plastic casements. On the left side of the wing, in the angle with the main range, stands an attached outbuilding of circa the early to mid 19th century, built of stone rubble with a slate hipped roof, external stone steps on the outer left side providing access to the loft, and 20th-century timber casements.

Interior

The ceilings in the central room (former hall) and lower left end room have been rebuilt, and these two rooms were converted into one large space by removal of the cross-passage partitions. A 20th-century newel staircase is located at the back of the former passage within the circa early 17th-century stair turret. The fireplace at the lower left end has a rounded back with a replaced lintel. The fireplace at the higher end of the former hall retains a timber lintel with cyma and fillet moulding and bar stops, though its jambs have been rebuilt. Ground-floor rooms contain some early 19th-century panelled doors, including cupboard doors, and an early 18th-century panelled door in the right end room. On the first floor are some early 18th-century fielded two-panel doors and 17th-century hanging cupboards beside the axial stack with scratch-moulded plank doors and internal pegs.

Roof

The medieval roof is represented only by one smoke-blackened truss with threaded purlins and a 17th-century replacement collar with notched lap joints. The roof over the lower left end has been replaced in the 19th or 20th century. The roof over the former hall retains remains of principals with notched lap-jointed collars, since replaced by straight principals crossed at the apex, with trenched purlins and lapped collars. The roof over the higher right end beyond the stack was not inspected, but the feet of the principals are straight. The roof over the rear wing comprises three trusses with notched lap-jointed collars to straight principals with threaded purlins; some collars and purlins have been replaced.