The Brook House

The Brook House

A detached house dating from the early 19th century, with 20th-century extensions and alterations. It is double-pile, with two storeys to the main elevation and two storeys and attic to the rear, and a single-storey range to the west.

The house is constructed from limestone ashlar to the main elevation and stacks, and coursed limestone rubble with dressed limestone quoins to the returns and the rear, set under Cotswold stone slate roofs.

The buildings are oriented roughly east-west on plan, with three bays at the centre, the central entrance and stair bay projecting to the south, with the principal rooms to either side. The house has been extended to provide additional rooms at either end of this block. To the rear are the former service rooms and carriage bay. A linear outbuilding runs from the rear of the house towards the west, now converted into part of the accommodation.

The main front, to the south, is of five bays, the westernmost set slightly back and below the level of the remainder. The building has a cornice and blocking course, and a plat band between the ground and first floors. There are pairs of six-over-six pane sashes in shallow reveals on each floor, flanking a central projecting square bay, which has a Venetian window to the first floor, with heavy moulded cornices to its sidelights. The entrance below has a chamfered stone Tudor archway and a six-panel outer door with fielded panels. The rear (north) elevation is a four-window range, with paired eight-pane casements to the first and second floors, widely set under large flush stone lintels and with projecting stone cills. The ground floor has three similar windows and two depressed elliptical stone archways, each with a keystone; the archways are fully glazed with 20th-century frosted glass. To the west, a single-storey range with one similar window to the main range, two single fixed lights, and timber plank double doors at the western end.

To the interior, the core of the building, dating from the early 19th century, retains its original layout, with a central entrance hall flanked by the principal rooms, each with its original windows and shutters. The hall has an inner doorway with fanlight over, and an open-string dogleg stair with double-ramped handrail. The first floor follows the same pattern, and also retains its windows and shutters, and 19th-century doors remain throughout. Both ranges have exposed roof timbers of the early 19th century. The roof of the south range is constructed from heavy-section A-frame trusses, consisting of lapped principal rafters, tie beams and collars with twin trenched purlins. The roof structure to the rear range is of lighter timbers but the same basic structure, with some later cambered collars fixed with iron bolts.

The building originated in the early 19th century, certainly before circa 1840, as a three-bay, two-storey house with a projecting central bay, and a range of single-storey outbuildings running to the west. The house is double-pile, with the rear range, of two storeys and attic, housing bedrooms and service rooms. It was extended by a bay to the east during the mid-20th century, with a further extension added to the west in the later 20th century, creating a symmetrical façade to the main front. Soon after, the outbuildings were converted to a kitchen range. The entrance walls and gateway were altered in the early 21st century, to the rear of the house, and the principal approach is now from the rear. A detached coach house was erected at the same period, to the north-east of the main house.