Brookhouse Farm, Quatt Malvern, Shropshire

Summary

Comprising a late-C14 crosswing to a former open hall, possibly once a manorial court, subdivided in the late-C16 or early C17. The open hall was rebuilt and the current wing includes structure of C17 and C18 date, and later. The building has been altered in the C20, including the loss of an original fourth bay at the east end of the crosswing.

Description

A dwelling of late-C14 date with C16-C20 alterations and additions, on the site of a medieval open hall.

MATERIALS: an oak-framed crosswing of trestle-sawn timbers on sandstone footings and cellars. The later wing is constructed of red brick with oak first-floor and roof structure, in part of reused material. The roofs are covered in clay tile with two red brick stacks.

PLAN: on an L plan formed by a three-bay wing (formerly a four-bay crosswing) of two storeys plus attic with a later single-bay, two-storey wing at the north-west end that has an attached bay of single-storey plus attic.

EXTERIOR: the cross-wing frame is exposed with brick infill mostly removed (in 2016). The frame is of large scanting with substantial sill beams, jowled corner posts, raked struts/ braces and four full-height wall posts to the north elevation (approximately 3.5m in height). At first-floor level is evidence of a former rail with mortises for a pentice roof. There is further evidence for a lost fourth bay to the east and a former stair tower adjacent to the present entrance bay. The north elevation had four first-floor window openings and has the remains of window heads with mortises for mullions. The west gable end also has an exposed medieval timber frame and there was formerly a tall four-light mullion window to the first floor. The east gable end is of late-C20 red brick*. The attached wing is broadly on a north/south orientation and of red brick with a storey band, brick dog-tooth eaves ornament and segmental arches to the openings. The end bay has an exposed timber frame south wall. To the rear of both wings are single-storey outshuts, of late-C19 or early C20 date. The crosswing has exposed framing to the first floor and the brick wing has similar detailing as the façade. The window frames across the building are timber with metal units.*

INTERIOR: the door in the north elevation leads into a hallway with part of a medieval door embedded in a partition by a cellar stair. An opposing door at the back of the hallway leads down into the former open-hall wing and to the left of the door is a corridor to an enclosed winder stair. There are principal rooms in the east and west bays with deep chamfered cross beams with run-out stops. The arrangement of rooms and corridor is repeated at first-floor level and the central and west rooms have elaborate C16 wall paintings including Shropshire scroll decoration to the borders and foliate (acanthus leaf) designs, some surviving with bright pigmentation. The attic floor has four pegged trusses, three are tie-beam trusses with cambered tie-beams and large collars, and the principal has jointed crucks. A single tier of chamfered purlins is threaded to two trusses and clasped to the other two. There are long, diagonally-set windbraces with double ogee mouldings with additional cusping and sinkings, four to each bay (one is missing where the attic has been opened to the adjoining wing). The apexes of the trusses are pegged, with no diagonally-set ridge piece, indicating a late-C14 rather than C15 date. The principal truss is open and richly decorated above the collar with cusping to match the windbraces, and has assembly marks and some later posts supporting the collar. The other trusses also have assembly marks and the closed truss adjoin the west bay has had a doorway inserted through the tie beam. The truss at the east end is faced up to the interior of the building, which with other evidence points to a lost fourth bay. It has circular assembly marks. Some doorframes and doors in this wing are of C17 or C18 date, as are the stairs to the first and attic floors.

The wing to the south has evidence in the north sill beam of fixings for a dais in a former open hall, and framing with patchy brick and plaster infill above. There is a C17/C18 inserted first floor with substantial chamfered and scroll-stopped beams and a reused moulded bressumer. The room has an inglenook with an inserted bressumer and brick relieving arch above. The remove above has a stop-chamfered beam. The roof structure of the former open-hall wing has reused elements with a west purlin having structural characteristics of C13 date. The bay to the south has a probable through passage in the former service end, and at the south end is a fireplace constructed using a truncated cruck for a bressumer. The attic floor of the end bay has a reordered roof structure including some C17 principals, and there is an inserted winder stair.

There are two cellars carved out of the sandstone, which may be contemporary with the crosswing and are reinforced with steel, brick and concrete.

* Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the marked features are not of special architectural or historic interest.

History

Brookhouse Farm is located to the east of Dudmaston Hall Estate and the village of Quatt, and the site has been occupied since at least the early medieval period. It is possible that the building was used as the manorial court for Dudmaston Manor, which was held by the Wolryche family from 1403. Re-used roof timbers in part of the building indicate a C13 date for a former building on the site or close by. This part of the building stands on the site of a probable former open hall, now replaced with a wing of largely C17 or C18 date. The attached crosswing dates from the late-C14 with crossframe walls and attic floors inserted before the mid-C17, and some roof strengthening. These adaptations could represent a change from administrative to residential use for the wing and saw the subdivision of the first-floor hall, which originally occupied the four-bay extent of the crosswing. The subdivision is dateable via the first-floor wall paintings that have been uncovered in the central and north bays, which compare with other local examples of 1575-1625 date. After the open hall was rebuilt an attic space was created for the new wing, and a doorway from the attic in the crosswing led to the removal of one of the cusped windbraces in the C14 roof. A fourth bay at the east end of the cross wing was demolished at some point and the east gable of the cross wing is of late-C20 brick construction. The wing on the former open hall site appears to principally date from the C17 but has some reused elements and has been updated later, including in the C20. In 2016 the building is being refurbished and in January of that year much of the brick infill in the crosswing was removed.

Reasons for Listing

Brookhouse Farm, Wootton, Bridgnorth, Shropshire, a late-C14 building subdivided in the late-C16/ early-C17 with attached open hall rebuilt in the same period, and with later adaptations, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural interest: the substantial roof and timber frame is an excellent example of high quality medieval craftsmanship deploying an usual decorative treatment to the central truss and windbraces;
* Rarity: intact medieval crosswings are uncommon especially where they survive with a high quality C16/C17 phase;
* Interior decorative scheme: the wall paintings are well-realised, notable regionally, and survive over most of the first floor, to an unusual extent for a building that has remained in use since they were first painted;
* Intactness: a significant proportion of its late-C14 fabric remains, albeit with the loss of the fourth bay of the crosswing. The C16/C17 internal partitions and floors are also largely intact.
* Historical interest: buildings such as this provide important evidence of the social functions and habits in medieval times, and this building may be the manorial court of the Dudmaston Estate, which was later converted into a high status residential dwelling.

External Links

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