The Ashes

The Ashes is a house located on Newton Road in Stowmarket, dating from the early 17th century, with some older timbers reused and alterations made around 1830. The building features a roughcast timber frame beneath a slate roof, with plain tiles on the rear and brick gable ends facing southwest. It has two storeys and five irregular bays. The entrance includes a six-panelled door, with the upper two panels glazed, located in the second bay. The windows are tripartite sashes with 2/2 glazing bars, all of which were added in the mid to late 19th century. The roof is bell-based and gabled, with an internal gable-end stack on the south side made of 17th-century English bond brick, featuring a wrap-around design and set off at the first floor, along with twin diamond flues that have been rebuilt.

At the rear, there is a 19th-century plain tiled extension that is one storey and has an attic, extending from the south end under a gabled roof. The rest of the elevation includes a two-storey 19th-century outshut made of brick, with various window types and dates, along with a half-glazed door. Two stacks rise through the roof, and the northwest gable has been refaced in late 19th-century stretcher bond brick.

Inside, the southwest wall features ovolo-moulded blocked windows, with inserted partitions present in some areas. The interior includes chamfered bridging beams with various minor stops, a 19th-century staircase with stick balusters, and a roof structure comprising principals, clasped purlins, collars, a lower tier of tenoned purlins, and curved windbracing. Some blackened timbers have been reused in the construction.