Ancient House Museum

Ancient House Museum

Merchant's house, now museum, dating to around 1490 with early 17th-century rear extension. The building was divided into 2 dwellings and shops in the early 19th century, then restored and converted to museum use in 1924. It stands on the north-west side of White Hart Street in Thetford.

The building displays exposed timber-frame construction on a flint and brick plinth, with a slate roof and pantile covering to the rear wing. It follows a parallel post-hall house plan and is 2 storeys high, topped by a gabled roof.

The ground floor frontage features a 6-panelled door slightly left of centre (replaced in 1991) under a 4-light hollow and roll-moulded overlight with a moulded canopy supported on carved arched braces. To the left is a 4-centred blocked doorway, probably providing access to a former shop lit by an early 19th-century sash window with 6 over 6 glazing bars. A similar sash window stands right of the main door, and further right is an early 19th-century bowed shop window with 7 glazing bars arranged in 4 tiers. To the right of this are studs of 1924 which replaced a door opened when the building was converted to shops; the original door had an overlight of 4-light hollow and roll-moulded design.

The first floor is jettied, with the bressumer carried on 4 arched braces and decorated with punched studs. Four early 19th-century sashes with 6 over 6 glazing bars light the first floor, while to the right are one 3-light and one 2-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window with leaded glazing, dating to the 17th century.

The rear comprises a long 2-storey range, partly timber-framed, extending west to a flint and gault brick gable, with 4 irregular bays marked by one late 19th-century door, one 20th-century door, and several late 20th-century casements. A brick and flint external stack stands on the north side. Between this range and the front block is a 2-storey-and-attic gabled stairway block dating to around 1600, with one casement on each floor.

The interior is renowned for its lavish decoration. The late 15th-century layout comprises a cross-passage with two 4-centred doors opening into service rooms to the south, a screen with two 4-centred doorways leading to the ground-floor hall to the north, and a 4-centred doorway at the west end of the passage leading outside. These features remain with minor alterations: the 2 south service rooms have been converted into one and used as a shop, the western door is blocked, and the screen was extensively restored in 1924 but retains a run of open balusters on the cornice (though the 4-centring is missing from the doorways).

The hall features lavishly decorated cruciform bridging beams. The east-west beam has carved solid arched braces on corbels. The beams display multiple roll-mouldings, fleur-de-lys carving, punched ring decoration and crenellations, all terminating in double raised tongue stops. The principal studs have double wave mouldings and similar stops. The wall plates are roll-moulded and crenellated. An open fireplace against the west wall was restored in 1924 and retains part of a rich cambered bressumer decorated with punched and peacock motifs. Above the fire are 2 double-chamfered brick recessed panels. A service room to the south has a plainer chamfered bridging beam and joists.

A rear dogleg staircase was added around 1600, featuring board stairs and a 20th-century handrail. Two first-floor rooms are accessed from the stairs, with the southern room entered directly from them. The timber-frame incorporates tension bracing. A 4-centred doorway connects the rooms. The east wall has herringbone brick nogging. The north room has arched braces supporting roll and hollow-moulded bridging beams. An attic flight of stairs has a blocked 3-light ovolo-moulded window facing south. The roof comprises rafters and clasped purlins, reconstructed in 1924. The rear wing is plain. The far west room retains an early 19th-century kitchen range and copper.