Mulberry Hall

Mulberry Hall is a house dating from circa 1500, which has been altered and extended, and was probably reduced in size. It is timber-framed with a brick plinth, with rear ranges in brick. The roofs are tiled, with a hipped roof to the right. The plan is complex, having formerly been a hall with a through passage, with a projecting wing containing a stair to the rear of the parlour, and service ranges to the rear to the right. A late 18th-century rear wing sits between others.

The asymmetrical facade is of two storeys and contains four three-light timber cross casements. The front door has six raised panels with a rectangular overlight, covered by a small flat canopy. A central first-floor window has been blocked. Internal brick stacks are present; the left-hand stack is of the late 16th century and projects forward of the ridge, incorporating an earlier 16th-century stone or terracotta plaque. This plaque, which may be associated with the arms of Henry VIII, is set above a bressummer and is divided into panels, one with foliage and a flower, and a fragment displaying two balusters. A further internal stack is in the hipped roof extension to the right, and another is in the 18th-century wing. A return facade features a four-panel door, the lower two panels with blank Gothic tracery and the upper two glazed with pointed heads, above a two-light casement. A blocked fireplace on the rear suggests a former continuation of the building to the left.

A late 16th-century timber-framed, gabled two-storey bay containing a stair was added to the rear. Circa 1800, a brick wing in Flemish bond was constructed. Sashes with glazing bars feature in this wing, with the ground floor windows having segmental arches. The rear of the main range has one exposed and one blocked first-floor four-light hollow chamfered mullion window.

The interior features a vestigial cross passage, with the hall partly open to the first-floor ceiling. The ground floor has a spinal beam with simple run-out stops. The staircase has a closed moulded string, turned balusters, moulded rails, square newels with pierced obelisk finials; these were brought from Diss in the 1970s. A roll-moulded spinal beam is across the ceiling above the hall. The parlour incorporates a massive fireplace with hollow chamfered stone jambs with roll moulded arrises, four centre arched alcoves within an inglenook, and a chamfered bressummer. Above is a stone or terracotta depiction of the arms of Henry VIII with a fragment of panel to the left, presumed to be derived from a former royal building and incorporated into a stack in the late 16th century. Simple three-inch chamfered cross beams are to the ceiling. Another newel stair has turned balusters and an urn finial on a square newel. A first-floor room to the left is panelled with fragments of early and later work, some with raised mouldings and mitred corners. A blocked leaded casement is to the rear of the main range. The roof is of the side purlin type, reusing timbers, including a crown post split and used as rafters. The house is said to have belonged to the estate of Cardinal Wolsey.