Poor House to Framlingham Castle

The Poor House, built in 1729 against Framlingham Castle's walls, stands on the site of the medieval great hall and incorporates substantial portions of that earlier building. Internally and in the north wing's east wall, the structure retains fragments of medieval masonry. Though extensively modified over time, the Poor House preserves evidence of the castle's development from the medieval period to the present day.

The building is constructed of mixed materials: rubble sandstone, split flint, and red brick laid in random pattern across its entrance front, with red brick margins framing all openings and a red plain tile roof. The north wing combines early rubble work with later brickwork. The structure is linear in plan, with its attic storey extending over the Red House at the south end and a north wing thought to have been rebuilt in the 16th century.

Originally two storeys with attics, the building now presents a single-storeyed elevation below attics. The front elevation comprises eleven bays with nine windows and a central single-storey gabled entrance porch. Five hipped two-light attic dormers break the roofline, with reduced brick ridge stacks at each end. The windows are transomed two-light openings set beneath segmental brick arched heads, the arches shallower at first floor level. Above the arches of four windows and the entrance doorway are reset medieval stone heads salvaged from now-demolished castle buildings. The south elevation of the north wing is rendered, featuring paired twelve-pane sash windows above a doorway, with modern two and three-light windows in the east bay. The east wall is a remnant of an earlier building extending further eastward, with additional traces visible in the heavily remodelled north wall. The most prominent feature is a large tapered chimney stack of brick and rubble stone that served the Poor House kitchen's large oven.

The interior has been substantially remodelled to serve as a display area and site shop. The first floor has been removed. Two wide fireplaces stand visible at the north end of the display space. The rear wall retains three wide, splayed arched openings to lancet windows, thought to be part of the great hall's late 13th-century rebuilding. At the south end of the ground floor, a moulded doorway surround leads to a stone spiral stair accessing the castle's wall-walk. A recess adjacent to this doorway is believed to have originally provided access to the medieval hall's service wing first floor. Another doorway opens from the stair into a windowless chamber. The stair and its doorways date to the late 15th or early 16th century. The north wing's ground floor functioned as the Poor House kitchen and contains a large brick oven. A stone fireplace in this space dates to the early 16th century, and ceiling timbers have been tree-ring dated to 1585–6. The wing's upper floor now houses a small museum documenting the town's later history but retains its origins as the medieval hall's north range from the late 13th century. A fireplace with an early 16th-century moulded stone surround remains in the north wall, part of the Tudor-period refurbishment of the castle. The attic floor of the main range was originally the dormitory and is now a single open space with exposed rafters, collar trusses, and two tiers of staggered purlins. Tapered brick chimney breasts at either end incorporate shallow segmental-arched hearths. A blocked hatch in the centre of the attic floor once served as a coffin chute from the dormitory.