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This
is Rock House (or Rockhouse) Farm. The two pictures say it all
- the farmhouse was demolished in 1961 and a modern dwelling constructed
in the area of the barns in the farmyard. The
gateway in the 2007 picture is, in fact, the gate to the modern house, but
the field gate is still in the same place.
Rock House Farm, Lower Froyle, was built around the 16th century, mainly of grey sandstone from nearby Quarry Bottom. It was purchased by William Westbrook in the 1850s. The Westbrooks came from a long line of local farmers, the name appearing in the Froyle Church Registers as early as the 17th century. The farm was worked by members of the family until 1936, when, on the death of George Westbrook, it passed to the Brownjohn family. We believe the older photograph was taken in about 1941. The young boy sitting on the wall is David Brownjohn. As mentioned above, it was the home for many years of the Westbrook family, and one of the daughters, Lilian (Smither) wrote many articles about her life as a child at Rockhouse. Strangely, the deeds to our bungalow (built in 1962), contain an inventory for Rockhouse Farm, taken at a time when money was borrowed on the security of the land the bungalows were built on (the field named Adams) |
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