Description

TQ 64 SW CAPEL SYCHEM LANE, FIVE OAK GREEN

5/282 Brook Farmhouse
17.7.90

GV II

Farmhouse. Late C16/early C17, enlarged and remodelled in the early C19. The
older part is timber-framed, some of it exposed but most clad with
weatherboards; the C19 walls are of Flemish bond red brick with decorative
burnt headers; C16 stack is coursed block of local sandstone, the others are
brick, brick chimneyshafts; tile roof.

Plan: Double depth plan house facing south west. Front and back room either
side of the central entrance hall. The left (north west) parlour has a large
axial stack projecting into the entrance hall. According to the owner there
was once a steep main stair rising over the stack but now the only stair is a
winder stair between the 2 rear rooms. Front right room has a projecting end
stack and rear right room (the kitchen) has a projecting rear lateral stack.
Rear left room is an unheated service room.

The left (north west) front and back rooms are from the late C16/early C17
farmhouse. The front room was a large heated hall or parlour whilst the back
room was a small unheated service room, probably a buttery or dairy. That
house probably extended further forwards. The front wall was rebuilt in the
C19 when the house was remodelled to its present form.

2 storeys with attics in the roofspace and a cellar under the left end.

Exterior: At first glance the 3-window front appears symmetrical but it is
not. The ground floor left window is set higher and both left windows are
further from the central doorway than the right ones. Outer windows are C19
16-pane sashes and low segmental brick arches over the ground floor windows.
Central first floor 12-pane sash over the front doorway which contains a
panelled and part-glazed C19 door behind a trellis porch. The main roof is
hipped both ends. The right (south east) end room has a doorway, containing a
C20 door under a C19 flat hood and behind it a 16-pane sash to each floor.
The left (north west) end wall is weatherboarded and towards the front are
late C16/early C17 oak 5-light windows with ovolo-moulded mullions on each
floor. The rear wall of the old part has exposed framing, partly hidden by a
C20 conservatory. The first floor jetty retains one original scroll-shaped
bracket.

Interior: Inside the unheated rear service room the late C16/early C17
framing is exposed; close-studded with middle rail and straight braces. It
also includes 2 windows with original chamfered oak mullions with grilles of
slender diamond mullions above. The front parlour is lined with C17 oak
small-field panelling which may belong to this room but, if so, has been
reset. The crossbeam here is boxed in. Large brick fireplace with plain oak
lintel. The chamber above is also lined with similar panelling and a couple
of panelled cupboard doors are hung on C17 H-hinges. 4-bay ceiling of
intersecting beams, chamfered with scroll stops. The rest of the house shows
much early C19 joinery and roof structure dates from the same time.

Brook Farmhouse is an attractive 2-phase building. It is approached by a
bridge across a stream, the course of which might indicate that the farmstead
was once a moated site.

Listing NGR: TQ6461344876

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26545228

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas