Lower Bramble Farmhouse

ASHTON SX 88 SE 6/7 Lower Bramble Farmhouse 11.11.52 II* Farmhouse. Circa early C16 origins, remodelled in the C17, the left end rebuilt or extended, probably in the C18. Stone rubble ; slate roof, gabled at right end, hipped to front of left hand crosswing ; axial stack to left of centre, front lateral projecting stack to right of centre. Plan: A high quality house with an unusual plan form, originally an open hall house, lower end to the right, with a grand arched brace roof to the hall. The lower end was floored prior to the hall and jetties into it over the through passage ; the hall stack is unusually positioned on the higher end wall opposite the passage and the hall may have been floored late in the C17. The lower end may have been rebuilt in the C17 and is now divided into 2 rooms, the front room a parlour. A newel stair in an outshut adjacent to the 2 storey porch rises from the hall. The position of the kitchen in the C17 is not clear. A crosswing was added at the left end, probably in the C18, giving one large unheated room at the higher left end. The hall has been reduced in size by the introduction of an axial passage at the back between the through passage and left end crosswing. Exterior: 2 storeys. Handsome asymmetrical 3 window front elevation with a good set of C19 or C20 timber casements with small panes, hipped end of the crosswing to the left, 2-storey porch to through passage with hipped roof, approximately central to the rest of the range with a stair outshut against the left return. Moulded, rounded granite doorframe to porch below C19 2-light casement. Interior: Pitched stone floor to porch ; timber moulded square-headed inner doorway with C20 door, old plank and stud front door moved to rear of passage ; moulded half beam to right of passage, section of plank and muntin screen between hall and passage. The hall has a moulded jetty beam but a plain beam supports the inserted floor ; blocked fireplace with modern chimneypiece, concealing a larger fireplace. Good C17 doorframe and door to stair outshut, the frame elaborately-moulded with elaborately-moulded stops : octagonal newel post to stair and 2 similar first floor doorframes to lobby at top of stairs. The front room at the lower end has a fireplace with granite lintel hollow-chamfered jambs and a relieving arch. The room over the hall has a plastered canted ceiling showing parts of a high quality arched brace roof with chamfered braces. The feet of the trusses over the lower end have boxed in principal rafters. Apex of roof not accessible at time of survey, (1987). A high quality house with an interesting plan form.

Listing NGR: SX8691682772