21, King William Street

NEEDHAM MARKET KING WILLIAM STREET TM 0855

3/136 No.21

9.12.55

GV II

A rare form of Wealden house, probably late C15; but greatly altered in C17 and C18. 2 storeys with attics, 2 windows. Timber-framed and plastered, with C18 small panels, raised and roughcast, with broad smooth plastered borders. Concrete plaintiled roof with axial chimney of red brick; a plaintiled gabled C18 dormer. C19 small-pane windows; sashes at ground storey and casements at 1st storey. C20 side entrance door. The original house consisted of: a) a storeyed bay to right, jettied at both front and back; b) a single-bay open hall recessed at both front and back; c) a probable service cell to left which would have contained a cross- passage, but has since been demolished and replaced by No.19 King William Street. The building appears therefore to have presented a Wealden-type elevation at both front and back, a feature not known elsewhere in Suffolk at date of survey. At both ends of the small open hall are beams at 1st floor level, moulded and embattled, and one tie-beam has similar mouldings on the face exposed in the hall. Widely-spaced tension-braced studwork. Plain crownpost roof, smoke-blackened in the hall bay. In C17/C18, the front wall framing of the hall, and the lower wall beneath the jettied bay to right, were pushed forward to form a flush facade. Part of the rear jettied wall remains, within a C19 extension. A first floor was inserted into the hall with an internal chimney in C17/C18.

Listing NGR: TM0878855193