Walnut Tree Cottage

Walnut Tree Cottage is a house dating from the late 15th century and the early 17th century. It is timber-framed and rendered, with a thatched roof featuring a decorated ridge. The house is one-and-a-half storeys high and originally comprised three rooms, with four bays. It has one internal chimney-stack and one end chimney-stack, both with plain red brick shafts. There are three eyebrow dormers, each with a 2-light casement window containing small panes. The ground floor has one single-light casement window and two 3-light casement windows. A wide, single-storey enclosed porch with a side entry and a 3-light casement window is situated at the front, its thatched roof sloping down to join the main roof. A small 17th-century 2-light mullioned window with barred lights is located on the extreme right-hand side, below the eaves.

Remains of the original 15th-century open hall survive in the first two bays. These include the two original 4-centred arched doorways of the cross-entry and, on the rear wall, the upper part of a 6-light diamond-mullioned hall window, with the mullions still in place. A chimney-stack was inserted, backing onto the cross-entry, and features two pointed niches on the back wall. A plain timber lintel protects the ground-floor hearth. Inside the hall, one chamfered beam has curved stops, a bar, and a scribed zig-zag ornament on the post-head. The hall roof is constructed of rough coppice-wood, with coupled rafters and remains of original plaster applied against the thatch as a fire precaution.

A plain early 17th-century parlour block has replaced the medieval service area. The parlour features widely-spaced joists, a plain timber lintel on the ground floor, and a brick arch over a smaller hearth on the upper floor. A late 17th-century 4-light window with square moulded mullions is in the rear ground-floor wall; these mullions are similar to those found at Park Farmhouse. A small bay was added to the left of the hall in the 17th century. Further details can be found in ‘Two Small Medieval Houses’ by S. Colman, published in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, Volume XXXI Part 1 (1968), pages 64 and onwards.