Thetford Warren Lodge

Thetford Warren Lodge

This is a warrener's lodge considered to have been built around 1400, extended during the 18th and 19th centuries, burnt out and abandoned in 1935.

The walls stand for the most part to almost their full original height and are up to 1 metre thick at ground floor level. They are constructed of mortared flint rubble with some brick and tile, and with limestone dressings that possibly include reused architectural fragments of 12th-century type. The floor of the upper storey no longer survives, although its level is marked by an offset on the interior face of the walls. A flat roof with skylight was added in the late 20th century.

The lodge is a rectangular building of two storeys measuring around 8.5 metres north-north-east to south-south-west by 5.8 metres transversely.

The principal south-eastern elevation has a door opening with a pointed arch and brick vault at the left-hand side. The internal and external stone surrounds of the entrance have been removed except for the base of the jambs on the north side. Slots lined with tile in the thickness of the wall to either side of the opening are thought to be for drawbars to secure the entrance. The south-east corner, which forms the external wall of the stair, shows evidence of rebuilding, probably following a collapse, the repair being clearly marked by the inclusion of random ashlar and brick. Later brickwork has also replaced a small section of original fabric to the lower courses at the northern end.

The ground floor was lit by five narrow window slots: one in the south-east wall to the north of the entrance, one centrally placed in each end wall and two in the north-west wall, either side of the chimney. At first floor level there are four wider, rectangular window openings, one in each wall. All embrasures are widely splayed internally. Where external stone dressings of the windows remain intact, the jambs are of reused masonry with a double bevel, and where the stone has been removed, impressions remain visible in the surrounding mortar. Above the ground floor and below the level of the upper chamber, two small rectangular openings were inserted in the east and west walls to light an intermediate floor, probably after 1740.

A sketch dated 1740 shows there was then a small lean-to structure against the north wall and another small shed to the west of it. Two single-storey thatched wings were subsequently added with a communicating door inserted in the south-east wall. These additions were demolished after the 1935 fire but are recorded in a photograph of about 1900. The outline of their roofs is marked by differences in colour on the external faces of the north and south walls, and the blocked opening of the inserted door is visible in the south wall. The remains of slates bonded into the fabric of the west wall outline the pitch of the roof of another adjoining structure of unknown date.

The lower apartment has a floor of worn brick. On the north-west wall are the remains of a large fireplace. To the south of the entrance, in the south-western internal angle, is an obliquely set narrow doorway with pointed arch and stone jambs opening onto a newel spiral stair which leads to a similar doorway on the first floor. The stair was originally crowned with an octagonal turret which projected above the level of the roof. This no longer survives but was still standing in the early 18th century, as shown in a sketch dated 1740.

The most prominent feature of the upper apartment is a large fireplace in the north-west wall, finely built of brick with ashlar jambs and moulded brick base. To the south of this is the western window opening. In the south-western angle, opposite the entrance to the stair, is a narrow arched doorway to a garderobe in the thickness of the wall, with a rebate for the door visible in the stone surround. Behind the garderobe in the north-west wall is a large inserted opening, and below this, in the outer face of the wall, is a narrow breach through which the circular garderobe shaft can be seen. In the south-east wall, above the doorway on the ground floor, is a rectangular opening with stone jambs giving onto a recess in the thickness of the wall with a quatrefoil light to the exterior. A rectangular slot in the floor of this recess, opening onto the vault of the doorway below, is interpreted as a murder hole through which missiles could be dropped on anyone attempting to force an entrance.

The interior shows evidence of alteration including the subdivision of the northern end of the ground floor to create two small additional rooms, one above the other. The partition walls do not survive, but the floor at this end, to the north of the fireplace, has been lowered and the interior face of the lower walls has been cut back by about 0.45 metres, truncating the splay of the northern window embrasure and leaving impressions in the mortar where flints have been removed.