Yewtree House

TM 05 NE 4/106

EARL STONHAM FORWARD GREEN Yewtree House

9-12-55

II* House; early C15 with alterations of c.1600. A 3-cell open-hall house. 1 storey and attics. Timber-framed and plastered; the C16 set-forward wing to left has good cable-pattern pargetting in large panels. Half-hipped thatched roof with axial and internal end chimneys of red brick. One gabled thatched casement dormer. C19 small-pane casements. Two C18 or early C19 boarded entrance doors. An unusually complete example of a medieval house: The cross-entry has unaltered twin 4-centred arched service doorways and massive rear 2-centred arched entrance doorway. From the cross-entry also leads the original staircase of triangular blocks with clap-boarded partition. Complete coupled-rafter roofs exposed in all 3 cells. Blocked open hall windows leaving evidence for square mullions. Widely-spaced heavy studwork with convex arched wind-bracing. The arch-braced tie beam has been removed from the centre of the hall, and a heavy 1st floor structure with chamfered joists inserted, together with a large chimney against the upper end of the hall, all in late C16. A wing was added to the front of the parlour cell also in C16, of 2 bays, with a cross-entry and end chimney. It is almost entirely of reused medieval timber, some of which is of c.1300 or earlier. Both wall plates have redundant notched-lap joints of this period, but the open truss is probably later; it has a strongly cambered tie-beam with heavy chamfered braces, both perhaps of C15 origin. Complete set of rafters from a coupled- rafter roof.

Included as grade II* because a good and exceptionally little- altered example of a rural C15 house.

Listing NGR: TM0981559922