Tudor House

NEEDHAM MARKET HIGH STREET (WEST) TM 0855

3/96 No.111 (Tudor House) and No. 113 9.12.55

• II*

Two houses and a shop, built as one Wealden type house in late C15. Alterations of several dates from c.1500 to c.1850. 2 storeys. Timber-framed: No.111 encased in painted mid C19 brick, No.113 plastered. Plaintiled roof with massive C16 chimney of red brick behind main range. Mid C19 small-pane sashes with flat arches of gauged brick, and 4-panelled entrance door with oblong fanlight. A further plank door of perhaps C16 marks the cross-passage position, within the service end. The single-bay open hall to left was entered via a spere whose posts and braces are removed; above the sperebeam is a closed truss with tension-braced studwork. Both end cells have heavy exposed floor joists. An original 4-centred arched doorway from hall to parlour. Plain crownpost roof without smoke-blackening, indicating that this late open hall never had an open hearth. A large open fireplace in the hall has a cambered lintel bearing a small incised merchant mark of Thomas Aldous (married 1536); the later inserted floor over the hall has roll-moulded joists of mid C16 type. A nether parlour in an added rear wing is mentioned in the will of 1500 of John Flegg. It has a plank and muntin screen and moulded main beams. Further extensions to rear at both ends of early C16, have plain crownpost roofs, and long-wall jettied upper floors. Various alterations to the left-hand rear wing of c.1600 include: a staircase with turned balusters, oak wainscotting in the nether parlour and chamber above, and extensive rebuilding of ground storey walling in red brick with 4-centred arched doorways and a bay window on a moulded plinth with wooden ovolo mullions and transomes. A History of Needham Market: Hugh Paget C.B.E., 1984. Suffolk Houses: E. Sandon, 1977.

Listing NGR: TM0873855167