Lower Brockhampton Manor House, Brockhampton Estate

Summary

Timber-framed manorial house built c.1400 within a moated site. The subsequent history of the house, including its adaption as a farmhouse in about 1760, was largely obliterated in about 1870 by J.C.Buckler who re-medievalised it by replacing the windows with new ones of standardised design and many of the doors with second-hand ones, and building an open staircase and decorative gallery across the hall.

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Description

Lower Brockhampton is the manorial house of a lesser gentry family, built soon after 1400 within a moated site. It is entirely timber-framed and consists of a hall and cross-wing, and there is reason to think there was once a second wing, demolished at the latest in the 18th century.

The original roof carpentry is largely intact, although partly concealed above the later ceilings, making consistent use of cusping as decoration, and the hall has fine base crucks and a spere truss with its original doorways. The original plan of the wing seems to be recoverable from the evidence of the roof and the partitions surviving on one or other level, although a turret believed to have projected on the east and to have contained the stairs has gone.

The subsequent history of the house, including its adaption as a farmhouse in about 1760, was largely obliterated in about 1870 by J.C.Buckler who re-medievalised it by replacing the windows with new ones of standardised design and many of the doors with second-hand ones, and building an open staircase and decorative gallery across the hall.

(1) Tree-ring analysis of some of the timbers at Lower Brockhampton manor house was conducted by Ian Tyers in 2010 as part of a Vernacular Architecture Group funded study (the work was commissoned by Jill Campbell). The tree-ring sampling was undertaken on 11 in-situ oak timbers from various parts of the structure and the dates were successfully obtained from 7 samples. The results indicate that some of the timbers from the base cruck hall date from between 1413 and 1441 AD, and the cross-wing from between 1398 and 1434AD.

(2) In 2013-14 the National Trust commissioned Ric Tyler to record and assess the structure of the timber-framed manor house at Lower Brockhampton. The study revealed six principal phases of development within the extant structure:

Phase I: Laste medieval (base-cruck hall and eastern cross-wing); early 15th century - c.1425 (prob. Philip Domulton).

Phase II: Major, early-Tudor modifications including rebuild of eastern cross-wing, introduction close-studding, erection of supplementary service range; early-16th century, 1520-1528 (Richard Habington). All of these modifications were effected before the erection of the timber-framed gatehouse in 1545-50.

Phase III: 17th-century modifications including the ceiling over the great chamber, which was dated by dendrochronology to between 1661-1686 (John Barneby). The introduction of first floor to hall has also been assigned to this phase although it could not be dated precisely. This work reflected a national trend at this time to shift away from 'commual' living to a more 'private' form of domestic arrangements.

Phase IV: 18th-century modifications. The house was reduced in status from manor to farmhouse in c.1780 when nearby Brockhampton House was erected for Bartholomew Barneby Lutley.

Phase V: Late 19th century remodelling by J C Buckler, complete by 1871. The house had fallen into a state of disrepair by the 1860s when a major phase of 'restoration' was commissioned by John Lutley. Extensive records for this phase of work survive.

Phase VI: Mid-20th century consolidation / refurbishment and later repairs since The National Trust acquired the propetry in 1946. This work commenced with a major scheme in 1948-50 under Alexander Gramham of Worcester. Subsequent periodic repairs, specifically to infill panel of the exposed south-facing elevations have been undertaken in the early 1990s and most recently in 2010.

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