The Laurels

The Laurels is a house dating from the 19th century, with significant earlier elements. The house has an L-shaped layout with extensions. A rear wing contains a fragment of a medieval open hall, dating from the 15th century or earlier, with a floor inserted in the 17th century, later extensions, and an underbuilding of a timber frame. The front block of the house was constructed in 1860. The exterior is primarily red brick, with some fragmentary timber framing, and pantile roofs with a replacement roof structure.

The principal east-facing facade is two storeys high and comprises three bays with tripartite and plain sash windows, all under arched heads. A central part-glazed panelled door is set beneath a flat hood supported by modillions and plain bracketed pilasters. A datestone reads “1860” with the initials “CWU” above. The north-facing wing is also two storeys high, with casement windows under arched heads. An off-centre doorway is located in the original medieval position, and there are casement windows in the gable end.

The interior of the 19th-century block features a central hall with flanking single rooms, moulded cornices, and shutter boxes to the ground floor windows. The first floor has no internal decoration and replacement fireplaces are present throughout. The 17th-century extensions were reworked in the 19th century. Some 17th-century transverse bridging beams remain, along with a smoke-blackened open hall truss at first floor. The truss features an arch-braced tie beam with queen struts supporting a collar in the roof space. Passing braces, lap-jointed to the queen struts, spring from the tie beam and continue to the collar, where they form an arch. Collars are lap-jointed to the rafters and have trenches for clasped purlins. At ground floor level, there are two-centre arched service doorways in the passage and a widened staircase that may be in the original position. An exposed tie beam at the east end marks the end of the hall.

The earlier building appears to have been a fragmentary two-roomed hall, possibly with two cross wings, which was reworked and extended in the 17th century. It was substantially rebuilt in the 19th century, with the addition of the front block. The surviving open hall truss is an unusual feature, representing a precursor to the mid-East Anglian queen post roof.