Description

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8563NE BRIDEWELL LANE
639-1/11/205 (West side)
07/08/52 Nos.16 AND 18

GV II

House, now divided into 2. C15, with earlier fragments to part
and later extensions to front. Timber-framed, render to No.16,
roughcast to No.18; plaintiles.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, attics and cellars; half-H form, with 2
projecting storied cross-wings to north and south and a former
2-bay open hall in the centre, now divided between the 2
properties on the line of the inserted chimney-stack, which
has a cruciform red brick shaft. No.16 has random
fenestration, partly as a result of mid-C20 restoration. On
the ground storey of the cross-wing a tripartite small-paned
sash window; on the 1st storey, a 12-pane sash in a flush
cased frame; a small sliding sash to the attic.
The hall range has a rectangular projecting bay with a fixed
12-pane window and flat roof on the ground storey, and just
below the eaves, a small 2-light ovolo-moulded mullioned
window. In the slope of the roof a flat-headed dormer with a
small-paned 2-light casement window. The entrance door on the
north side of the wing has a heavy Greek Doric doorcase with
fluted columns, a triglyph frieze and a cornice: this was
removed from Blomfield House in the 1960s when it was
demolished to make way for the Health Centre.
INTERIOR: an impressive fireplace surround and overmantel on
the south wall with enriched bolection-mouldings has also been
introduced from elsewhere and does not relate to a
chimney-stack. The cross-wing has exposed framing only on the
north wall adjoining the hall; on the 1st storey the wallplate
has an edge-halved scarf joint with undersquinted bridled
abutments. At the rear of the wing the roof has been raised.
The hall range is separately framed with an open truss butted
up against the wing: this has a main post with bracket and
shaft and a long arched brace to the tie-beam. One bay of the
hall is in each house: in No.16 the lower bay, which has been
opened up to tie-beam level. Along the front wall the studding
remains only above the level of the middle rail, and the
central open truss is now immediately in front of the inserted
stack, which was placed over the site of the open hearth. The
main post of the central truss, visible in the front wall, has
ogee-moulding and the remains of a bracket and shaft with a
long arched brace to the tie-beam above. Traces of red ochre
colouring on some of the timbers.

In the attic storey the crown-post, standing on a cambered
tie-beam, has a tall octagonal shaft moulded at cap and base
and originally braced 4 ways; the braces to the collar-purlin
have been removed and the roof is ceiled over at collar level
so that no rafters are visible. The cross-wing of No.18 has a
narrow one-and-a-half storey extension on the north side and a
wide single-storey extension on the south. All windows are C19
sashes in flush cased frames with a single vertical
glazing-bar, except for one former shop window, with a moulded
fascia and cornice, to the right of the entrance and a small
paned 2-light casement window to the upper storey of the
former hall.
C19 extensions at the rear of the wing are now occupied as a
separate house. A 4-panel door with the top 2 panels glazed
and a blank rectangular fanlight in a wooden surround with a
flat bracketed pediment.
INTERIOR: much modernised during the 1980s with many original
features concealed, particularly in the cross-wing. A fine
flint and stone cellar has vaulting in C17 brick. There is a
thick wall of rubble flint between the hall and the wing with
the stone jamb to one side of a doorway; the doorhead is
missing. On the hall side of this wall is a 2nd open truss
with an ogee-moulded and cambered tie-beam supported by arched
braces; a crown-post, moulded at cap and base, above. The
collar-purlin is a replacement, but the collars and rafters
are original. The hall timbers are all massive and lightly
smoke-blackened. In the front wall, the rebate for the former
hall window which had an ogee-moulded surround.
The mortice-holes suggest that the mullions were moulded.
Mid-C17 inserted ceiling over the hall, on 2 levels. Main
beams with chamfer and scroll stops; plain joists. The C17
chimney-stack has a timber lintel, chamfered, with scroll
stops.

Listing NGR: TL8552563964

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26282469

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)