Longville House

Longville House is a house and museum with a core dating back to the 15th and early 16th centuries, likely built in two phases, and significantly remodelled in the mid-19th century. It is two storeys and has attics. The original timber-frame structure was largely rebuilt in the 18th and 19th centuries using red brick. The front elevation is red brick with a band at first floor level and a coved plastered eaves cornice. The roof is tiled, with 19th-century parapet gables and a variety of red brick chimneys. There are also 19th-century gabled casement dormers. The windows are 19th-century casements set within 18th-century openings, having flat arches formed with gauged brick. A mid-19th-century arched, panelled entrance door is located on the side, set within a gabled, tiled porch that projects from large timber brackets. Two rooms at the front retain ceilings with exposed floor joists. In the hall, these joists are roll-moulded, and the bridging joist is embattled in the early 16th-century style. The end room features unchamfered, very large medieval-style joists. A large rear wing, built of gault and red brick, represents a mid-19th-century rebuilding of an earlier range. The house was acquired by Edmund Bedingfield, a clothier, in 1721 and was then known as the Woad House, apparently used for cloth dying for many years.