Guildhall Place

A three bay, single-storey, timber-framed building, possibly constructed as a guildhall or similar public building in the late C15 or early C16, re-sited and used for agricultural purposes from the mid C19, re-roofed in the C20, renovated and incorporated into a dwelling in 2008-2010.

MATERIALS: timber framed on a brick plinth with external render, tiled roof.

PLAN: linear range.

EXTERIOR: the building measures approximately 8m x 4m, and has a gable roof with a C21 modillion cornice to the long east and west elevations, and barge boards to the north and south. The principal east elevation has two of the original external door entrances curtailed with external shutters of the C21, and restored three-light mullion windows to the ground and first floors. The west elevation has restored mullions of two, three, and five lights and a door opening into the C21 porch attached to the south end, which wraps around the south end of the rear elevation and links the building to the unlisted barn to the south-west. The north gable end has a restored five-light mullion in the apex.

INTERIOR: all the main timbers are chamfered; the sole plate, some sections of wall plate and mid rail, and some studs were replaced in the C21. The C20 roof comprises principal rafters with purlins. The wall frames have close studding with mid-rails and arched bracing halved inside studs, wall and sole plates, jointed and pegged, and seven restored diamond mullioned windows with shutter grooving on all walls on both levels. The entrances to the east elevation have probable 4-centred arched heads and there are arched braces from jowled and rebated posts to sharply cambered tie beams in one of which the uprights of a queen post remained prior to restoration, these having been removed to accommodate a new queen post roof structure.The storey posts contain well-cut mortices for binding joists to a second floor frame. Some wattle and daub panels survive and the timber frame bears two phases of carpenters’ marks and evidence of singeing from candles.

The attached C21 weatherboarded porch on a brick plinth, which leads into a barn, probably of the C16 but modified in the C18 or C19, both of which form part of the same dwelling, are excluded from the listing.