Brook Cottage Brookside

A range of two cottages, originally a single house, dating to approximately the 15th and early 16th centuries, with later alterations. The construction is of slate rubble with an asbestos slate roof featuring gabled ends. No. 1, located at the west end, has a higher roofline. The original layout comprised three rooms, with a through passage separating a storeyed west end (now No. 1) from a central, two-bay open hall (now shared by both cottages) and a wing set at a right angle to the rear of the storeyed east end (No. 2). Gable end and rear lateral stacks are present. A projection on the rear wall of the west end may have been a garderobe, featuring a scroll slit window in the angle. The long range has a six-window south front with 19th and 20th-century casement windows. Timber lintels to first-floor corridors are present, two of which are chamfered, while ground floor lintels are of concrete. To the left, No. 1 has a glazed door leading to the through passage, and a porch with a hipped slate roof positioned to the side of a buttress with set-offs. No. 2 has a 20th-century plank door on the right, protected by a slated hood. A rear wing of No. 2 (northeast) has fragments of 15th-century stone window incorporated into a two-light window with cinquefoil heads on its east side; an interior moulded timber lintel is also present. A damaged window above retains one surviving cusped light.

Internally, the roof over No. 2's east end features four trusses, one against the east gable wall, with morticed apices, morticed and slightly cambered collars, and side-pegged construction. Threaded purlins and a diagonal ridge-piece are also evident. One bay of the open hall above No. 1 is reported to be smoke-blackened. The first truss over the rear wing has a morticed apex and a largely missing collar, with threaded or trenched purlins, while the subsequent trusses are later. No. 2 at the east end boasts step-stopped, chamfered ceiling beams, while No. 1, to the west, has four jointed cruck trusses, without smoke-blackening, featuring morticed apices, morticed and slightly cranked collars, all side-pegged. These trusses include three tiers of threaded purlins and some intact rafters, along with a diagonal ridge. Tall ground floor sections with two and two half beams against the end walls are characterized by deep, slightly convex chamfers with bar stops. A large window lintel on the front, possessing ogee and two hollow moulds with run-out stops, is associated with a partly blocked window. A similar lintel is above the front doorway of the through passage. A newel stair is located in the rear (northeast) corner, while a blocked doorway with a stop-chamfered lintel is situated on the east wall of the passage.