Lillybrook

Lillybrook is a house dating to around the late 16th century, with an addition from the late 1920s. The walls are whitewashed cob on stone rubble footings, topped by a gabled slate roof. There are end stacks, and a large projecting stack on the front wall, featuring set-offs and a tall brick shaft. The original layout comprised three rooms and a through passage, with the hall heated by a lateral stack on the front. A narrow, heated inner room was originally to the right, and a lower end room was likely unheated. A projecting rear stair turret, originally in the hall, is now internal, due to the 1920s addition to the right end and rear. The front facade is irregular, with three window bays. The projecting stack is centrally located, alongside a semi-circular bread oven with a slated roof. A porch with a sloping slate roof and a pegged doorway leads into the passage. Two further doorways, one on the left extreme and one on the right, are later additions. The windows are 2-light casements with small panes. Inside, the hall is largely intact, with oak plank and muntin screen partitions. These screens have an unusual feature: two small rectangular panels above each doorway, potentially originally open to provide light to the passage and inner room. A small square window has been inserted into the passage screen. The hall fireplace has stone rubble jambs, a plain lintel, and a 19th-century brick-lined bread oven. A chamfered hall cross beam has stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops. The left-end fireplace has a 20th-century grate, and a late 19th-century straight staircase is positioned against the rear of the passage, which has been partitioned off, with the original rear door blocked. One visible roof truss from the late 16th century has a threaded ridge, and corresponding rafters remain. It is an attractive late 16th-century house with a very complete hall.