TQ 64 SW CAPEL SYCHEM LANE, FIVE OAK GREEN 5/284 Brook Cottage GV II Small farmhouse. Early/mid C17, extensively modernised circa 1949 after bomb- shock damage in the Second World War, some circa 1980 modernisations. Timber- framed on brick footings and clad with peg-tile above first floor level, brick stack and chimneyshaft; peg-tile roof. Plan: 2-room lobby entrance plan house facing north west. The left (north eastern) room was probably the kitchen and the right one the hall. Stairs rise in a turret projecting to rear of the stack. Rear service blocks were new built or much altered circa 1949 although there does seem to have been an original unheated room to rear of the parlour, maybe a buttery or dairy. Main block is 2 storeys with attics in the roofspace with 2-storey and single storey ancillary blocks to rear. Exterior: The framing is close studded. Essentially symmetrical front with 2 ground floor windows and 4 windows on the first floor, all C20 windows with ovolo-moulded mullions, iron casements and diamond panes of leaded glass. (There are similar windows around the rest of the main block). The windows reuse some old glass, some of the panes tinged green. In places the disposition of the windows has been altered. For instance there is evidence on the front frame for 4 original ground floor windows. Central doorway has original oak frame with richly-moulded surround and contains a C20 Tudor-style door with coverstrips and ornate strap hinges. Gabled timber-framed porch is C20 but includes some reused timbers and side windows have grilles of turned balusters. There is a similar smaller version to rear of the left end wall. Main roof is tall and steeply pitched and is half-hipped both ends. The stair turret also has a half-hipped roof. It is flanked by flat-roofed extensions and behind that a Victorian animal house has been brought into domestic use. Interior: The supposed kitchen has an ovolo-moulded axial beam with bar- scroll stops and a large brick fireplace with plain oak lintel. By contrast the parlour has a chamfered and scroll-stopped crossbeam and a sandstone ashlar fireplace, a Tudor arch with moulded surround and sunk spandrels. Both first floor chambers have chamfered axial beams with scroll stops with renovated brick fireplaces with plain oak lintels. Where the framing is exposed at first floor level it is large framing with curving tension braces. Roof of 3 uneven bays, tie-beam trusses with clasped side purlins. The stair has been refurbished. It has square newel posts with teardrop finials and turned balusters. The evidence of a small original room behind the parlour comes from the 4-panel intersecting beam ceiling there. It is clear that the house was extensively and expensively renovated to high standard circa 1949 and that some material was introduced then, e.g. oak small- field panelling in the main rooms and lobby, the Delft tiles in the parlour fireplace and the Tudor-style doors with good ornate strap hinges. Listing NGR: TQ6454144718