Description

LAWSHALL

922/0/10067 MELFORD ROAD
23-FEB-06 LITTLE WEST FARM

II
House. Late C16 (dated 1592) with C17 alterations and C20 extensions. Colourwashed timber-frame with thatched roof and brick right ridge stack. C20 rear extension has a pantile roof.

plan: 3-unit lobby-entry plan. Single storey and attic. Front has 2 3-light casements and central door within gabled open porch and 2-light casement to right. Small window to upper left. 2-light gabled dormer in centre. On right end a narrow wide multi-light window with a 2-light casement over and a lean-to extension on the rear extending from the late C20 rear extension. On left end a 2-light casement on each floor with, to rear, a further lean-to extension.

INTERIOR:Tall-panel framing mostly visible. Chamfered bridging beams with simple curving stops. Wide ceiling joists. The carved date of 1592 on the hall bridging beam may well have been made when the house was first built or occupied giving an unusually precise date of construction. The house has a clasped purlin roof with long coupled rafters, visible in one half to the apex. It was originally hipped at both ends, but now has gables.

The most outstanding feature is the rare original, fully intact, single-flue, timber-framed chimneystack with the original brick hearth. This is reliably reported as being one of the best if not the best preserved example of its type in Suffolk. The timber structure ends in a platform two feet beneath the ridge and supports a brick shaft to resist the elements. Although the bressumer is tenoned to the rear wall the dimension of the flue confirms the fireplace did not extend to the rear wall. The lack of peg holes also confirms that brickwork formed the hearth.
The fireplace heats a central floored hall with the unheated service bay to left. This is sub-divided into two rooms entered by a door against the rear and front walls leaving a space for a bench opposite the hearth. The bay of the house to the right beyond the chimney was remodelled in the C17 when the parlour bay was rebuilt and extended. A brick chimney was added to the rear of the timber-framed chimneystack in the new parlour bay. This bay has a wide window with diamond mullions and there are others, some blocked, in the house, as well as several old plank doors.

The rear wall framing of the original house is visible in the high entrance hall forming the beginning of the C20 extension and the roof junction has left the original roof intact.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: This is a late C16 house which was remodelled in part in the C17 and retains much fabric of these periods intact. Unusually the C16 work is dated. This survival is significant but in addition there is the very rare surviving feature of the late C16 timber-framed smokehood or chimneystack with the original brick base and bressumer. The evolution of comfort is also illustrated by the survival of the C17 brick stack built to its rear.

SourceS:Information from the Suffolk Historic Buildings Group.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670876

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

• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)