Whaley'S

This is a former farmhouse dating from the mid to late 16th century. Originally a 3-cell plan building with an internal chimney stack and cross-entry, it stands on St. James’ Road, South Elmham. The structure is timber-framed and now rendered, with a thatched roof, and features a plain red brick chimney shaft. Windows are a mix of 2-light casements (modern) on the upper floor, one original 3-light casement with a transome, a replacement modern window on the ground floor, and a 4-light casement window to each floor of the south gable. A plank door is sheltered by a simple Doric portico.

The interior retains good timbering with 5 bays, full-height studs in the long walls, and the original entrance in the cross-entry, now partitioned to form a corridor. Formerly two service rooms, these are now combined and retain two original doorways, one of which is blocked. The 2-bay hall’s main beam is chamfered with curved step stops, and features joists without jewels. The open fireplace has a timber lintel and a damaged band of ornate pargeting above it. The parlour has similar ceiling joists, a plain timber lintel, and a large blocked original window on the front wall; the ceiling is unplastered between the joists. The main beams in both rooms have noticeably sunk, causing both halves of the ceiling to slope towards the centre.

The room above the parlour showcases elaborate plasterwork from around 1600, more lavish than that in the hall, with flowing decoration, bunches of grapes, foliage, Tudor roses, fleur-de-lys, and dragon motifs, now obscured by limewash. The service end of the house has blocked diamond-mullioned windows - the mullions remain in situ - on each side wall and evidence of another in the gable end. The tie-beams have long arched braces, and the upper ceilings are original. The roof is a clasped purlin roof in 7 bays, with full principals cut away for the insertion of the purlins, and wind braces curving in one direction per bay, forming arches across pairs of bays; there are no wind braces to the chimney bay. The house is situated sideways-on to the road.