Ambrook Farmhouse Including Courtyard Wall And Doorway To South

Ambrook Farmhouse Including Courtyard Wall and Doorway to South

Farmhouse dating from the 17th century, possibly with earlier origins, extended in the early 19th century. The building is located in Broadhempston and occupies two storeys with an asymmetrical front elevation.

The main structure comprises rubble walls, rendered to the porch and lower right-hand end, with dressed red sandstone detail applied to doorways. The roof is slated and gable-ended, hipped to the wing. Rubble gable end stack stands to the left, while a rendered rubble axial stack is positioned to the right, lateral to the wing.

The 17th-century plan was originally three rooms with a cross passage, lower end to the right, and possibly an original 17th-century staircase in a small rear wing at the passage. A two-storey porch projects to the front. The lower end was extended with a wing to the front in the early 19th century, the lower side of which formed a new front to the road.

The front elevation displays a central 17th-century two-storey gabled porch. To its left are late 20th-century three-light casements on both ground and first floors with glazing bars. The porch features a wide four-centred arched red sandstone doorway with heavy roll moulding and carved foliage in the spandrels. Above it is a mid-19th-century 12-pane sash window with horns. Carved into the render above the window are the initials 'J.G' and the date 1673. To the right of the porch is a blocked doorway, with the wall projecting beyond it to accommodate a probably early 20th-century two-light casement. The projecting wing to the right has a pentice slate roof running along its inside face and across the front wall of the courtyard. The opposite side of the wing, facing the road, displays an early 19th-century symmetrical three-window front of 12-pane hornless sashes with a central six-panel door featuring a panelled surround and rectangular fanlight above.

The original front of the house was preceded by a courtyard, which partially survives with some infilling. At its front, opposite the porch, stands a narrow four-centred arched red sandstone doorway with roll moulding and more simply carved spandrels. The unusual narrowness of this courtyard arch suggests it may have been re-used from elsewhere.

The interior contains fewer 17th-century features than might be expected, but those surviving are of high quality. The front doorway inside the porch has a heavy 17th-century square-headed wooden doorframe with ovolo and hollow moulding and vase stops, alongside what is probably a contemporary heavy plank and studded door with an old brass keyhole. At the rear of the passage is a large open well staircase retaining 17th-century octagonal newels with hollow step stops to the chamfered edges, though the original balusters have been replaced. The left-hand ground floor room is unlikely to have been a kitchen, as its fireplace features a good quality ovolo-moulded wooden lintel. The room layout to the lower side of the passage has been altered and now comprises several smaller rooms, with the lower end room remodelled as part of the 19th-century wing. This room has a fireplace with a rough stone arch and panelled shutters to the window. On the first floor at the head of the staircase are two square-headed 17th-century wooden ovolo-moulded doorframes with high hollow step stops. The roof timbers, probably dating to the 18th or 19th century, feature straight principals and lapped collars.

Ambrook was an important 17th-century house in the area, likely a gentry house, and represents a relatively unusual survival of its type. Although many of its features have been lost, those remaining are of high quality and reflect the status of the original building.