Tudor House

Tudor House, located at No. 111 and No. 113 on Needham Market High Street, is a pair of houses and a shop built as one Wealden type house in the late 15th century. The building has undergone several alterations from around 1500 to 1850. It is two storeys high and features timber framing, with No. 111 encased in painted mid-19th century brick and No. 113 plastered. The roof is covered with plain tiles and includes a massive 16th-century chimney made of red brick at the back of the main range.

The front of the house has mid-19th century small-pane sash windows with flat arches made of gauged brick, along with a four-panelled entrance door topped by an oblong fanlight. There is also a plank door, likely from the 16th century, marking the cross-passage position within the service end. The single-bay open hall on the left was originally accessed through a spere, although its posts and braces have been removed. Above the sperebeam is a closed truss featuring tension-braced studwork. Both end cells have heavy exposed floor joists.

An original four-centred arched doorway connects the hall to the parlour. The plain crownpost roof shows no signs of smoke-blackening, indicating that this late open hall never had an open hearth. A large open fireplace in the hall features a cambered lintel with a small incised merchant mark belonging to Thomas Aldous, who married in 1536. The later inserted floor above the hall has roll-moulded joists typical of the mid-16th century.

A nether parlour in an added rear wing is mentioned in the will of John Flegg from 1500 and includes a plank and muntin screen along with moulded main beams. Further extensions to the rear at both ends date to the early 16th century and have plain crownpost roofs and long-wall jettied upper floors. Various alterations to the left-hand rear wing around 1600 include a staircase with turned balusters, oak wainscotting in the nether parlour and the chamber above, and extensive rebuilding of the ground storey walling in red brick, featuring four-centred arched doorways and a bay window on a moulded plinth with wooden ovolo mullions and transoms.