The Gables William'S Store

THE GABLES (WILLIAM'S STORE), GRUNDISBURGH

House and shop. A timber-framed building of 16th-century origin, substantially expanded and modified through the 17th, 19th and 20th centuries. The structure comprises an L-shaped plan formed by a 16th-century wing (the downstroke) to which double-pile 17th and 19th-century ranges were added as a cross-stroke, with a further late 19th-century cross-axial wing.

The 16th-century portion is timber-framed with colourwashed render. The 17th-century range is timber-framed with a red brick skin covered by a further skin of 19th-century brick. The late 19th-century portion is of yellow brick with red brick dressings. The building is two storeys throughout, with a roof of lead, slate and plain tile.

The garden front presents a varied elevation. The gable ends of the 1870s wing and 17th-century wing are of yellow brick with pilaster buttresses to their edges and at their centres ending in ball finials. A red-brick band runs at the base of the gables, with red brick coping featuring stepped patterns of triangular blocks. The 17th-century wing includes a ground-floor sash window of 4 x 4 panes with chamfered lintel, above which is a first-floor tripartite sash window also with chamfered lintel. The left-hand gable end has a doorway of 6 raised and fielded panels with brick pilasters at either side and a large-scale egg and dart frieze. To the left of this is a tripartite sash window with chamfered lintels and a first-floor tripartite sash window. The 16th-century wing has 20th-century fenestration. To the far right is white brick walling enclosing the base of a massive chimney stack which is cross-axial and has a rectangular red-brick top with two diamond-shaped flues. Adjacent is a sash window of 2 x 2 panes and a doorway with a stable door, with a single-light casement to the left and a 4-light casement further left. The first floor has three 2-light windows. The left-hand end of this wing has a hipped roof and a central single-flue chimney stack which diminishes as it rises. The recessed rear of the 17th-century wing has a single-storey porch in the re-entrant angle with a round arch and battlemented parapet, and a similarly modelled bay window to the left with a clasping buttress to the left-hand corner ending in a ball finial. At the ridge is a 2-flue chimney stack of circa 1870. A 6-panel door, the upper two glazed, with a glazed surround, is present here. The rear of the 16th-century wing has two 20th-century ground-floor windows of 2 and 3 lights, and two 19th-century first-floor windows also of 2 and 3 lights.

The road front is entirely of circa 1870. A projecting gabled wing at the right has a shop window of 2 lights to the ground floor and a tripartite first-floor window above, with the entwined initials S A and J inscribed to a stone in the gable. To the left is a long glazed shop front with plate glass windows divided by moulded mullions, double doors at the left and a single door at the right. The first floor has a central blocked window with 2-light casement windows to either side.

Interior: The ground-floor rooms in both the 16th and 17th-century ranges have massive chamfered ceiling beams with joists, and the walls feature close studding with angle braces and jowled wall posts. The 16th-century range has a brick chimney that was remodelled; the 17th-century range retains a brick chimney with a winder staircase leading from the first floor to the attic. The first floor has wide oak floorboards, and pamment tiles cover the ground-floor kitchen and corridor. The ceilings in the 17th-century range appear to have been raised in the 19th century.