Cringleford House Rosiland House

Cringleford House and Rosiland House

A house now divided into two dwellings, built around 1794 as a rebuild of a late 16th-century house, originally constructed for Thrower Buckle. The building stands on the north side of Newmarket Road in Cringleford.

The main structure is constructed of brick with black glazed pantiles. It comprises a double range of 5 bays, 3 storeys and a cellar, flanked by 2-bay 2-storey extensions added in the mid-19th century with hipped slate roofs. The central 1794 facade has end internal stacks, with the left gable featuring an added external stack; end internal stacks also serve the rear range. Brick parapets run between the gables of the double roof, with modillions to the cornice. The windows are recessed sashes with glazing bars and gauged brick flat arches (the sashes to ground floor bays 1 and 2 now lack glazing bars), while second floor sashes are 3 x 2 panes.

A shallow porch was added around 1885, built in brick with a flat roof and decorative brick parapet featuring a large stone lion's head to either side of the facade. The porch incorporates a reset 18th-century doorway with an open pediment, panelled soffit, flanking bowed Tuscan pilasters, a 6-panelled door, and a fanlight above with curved and scalloped glazing bars, some fitted with knobs.

The two-storey wings either side are set slightly back, with openings and eaves cornice matching the main facade. The right wing has an added large canted bay window of around 1885 with a cornice matching the central porch and sashes. The right return comprises 2 bays with sashes with glazing bars and flat arches.

The left wing (Rosiland House) was extended by one bay around 1920. This extension features a large doorway said to be from the Town Hall of Great Yarmouth (1882-3 by J.B. Pearce), now painted stone, with a heavy head, floral cornice and basket arch. The door has fielded panels, with a basket-headed light above containing 19th-century painted glass depicting the Venerable Bede and his monastery. A sash with glazing bars sits beneath a soldier arch at first floor level.

To the rear, an east wing conservatory contains late 19th-century painted glass in Pre-Raphaelite style, showing curved rose stems with a central lozenge containing two birds and margin lights with small bullions. The central block rear has varied fenestration. The first floor features 17th-century leaded lights with segmental heads, pintle hinges and original fittings. The second floor has tripartite flush sashes with glazing bars to bays 1 and 5, and a flush sash with glazing bars (4 x 4 panes) to bay 3.

Interior

The double roof is largely composed of reused timbers, probably from the original late 16th-century building and re-erected in 1794, with some principals in pine. It has two tiers with purlins notched into rafters.

An openwell open-string staircase features turned balusters with a wreathed mahogany handrail with ivory inset over newels. The handrail is curved and twisted to the first floor, then ramped with stick balusters to the second floor. Geometric coloured tiles were laid to the hall floor around 1885.

The central room to the rear range contains a massive 19th-century reset interior doorway of oak with a large coved cornice and fat twisted flanking columns having acanthus leaf bases and Corinthian capitals, with a double-leaved door.

The ground floor of the mid-19th-century right wing has a geometric plaster ceiling with reeded colonettes to window and door frames.

Historical Context

The site was formerly occupied by a house known as Flotmans, documented in 1584, which comprised two ranges with the same plan dimensions as the present 3-storey block. One of these ranges had been recently erected at the time of documentation.