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