Tiptofts

WIMBISH COLE END 1. 5222 Tiptofts (formerly listed as Tiptofts Manor House) TL 53 NE 12/859 26.11.51

I

1. Remarkable C13-C14 timber-framed building with considerable alterations and few external features of much interest but much of the original hall remains and has some fine features. A water filled moat entirely surrounds the house. The original building was an aisled hall with small flanking wings projecting on the west and making the building half H shaped. In the C16 the hall was divided up and the floor and great chimney stack were inserted. In the C17-C18 the east front was entirely altered and the east aisle of the hall altered by gabled wings extending to the east. The solar wing was extended and another wing built out from the centre, so the front has now 3 gabled wings of varying size. There were further alterations in the C19 and additions to the rear, and circa 1910 all fronts, except the rear, were faced in brick with some tile hanging in the gable of the south wing, which had its upper storey underbuilt. The hall (37 x 19 ft with a 4½ ft aisle) was of 3 unequal bays with the narrow screens bay at the south end. In the early C19 the ceiling of the south half was removed and the great timbers exposed, and the remaining original doorway from the screens to the buttery wing uncovered. The timbers are remarkable, and the quatrefoil columns with chamfered base and moulded capitals supporting the south bay remain. The north bay columns are now hidden in the walls but the hammerbeams with curved braces and cusped spandrels are exposed and even charred in places. The king post roof is exposed and also the whole of the great C16 chimney stack. The buttery wing has some old features and is largely unused. The rest of the building is mostly C19 and later. (RCHM 14).

Listing NGR: TL5696937393