Charles Hall

RINGSHALL STOWMARKET ROAD TM 05 SW

5/163 Charles Hall - - II

Former manor house, now a farmhouse subdivided into 2 dwellings. Circa c.1500 with mid C16 and early C17 alterations. 2 storeys. 3-cell cross-entry plan with central open hall. Timber-framed and plastered. Plaintiled roofs. Axial chimneys, rebuilt in mid C19 in gault brick: octagonal shafts with concave faces, that to the hall having a single flue, that to the parlour wing with two. Casements of c.1960. C20 entrance doorways; one with a gabled plaintiled porch is at the cross-entry position. The 2-bay open hall has a central open truss: a cambered tiebeam (arch-braces missing) and an octagonal crownpost without capital, with 2-way plank braces. The roof is complete and has moderate smoke-blackening. Good close-studding. Twin service room doorways: one blocked, the other damaged but with part of a chamfered 4- centred arch. In mid C16 a wide open fireplace with cambered lintel was placed against the cross-entry, and a fine inserted ceiling in the hall, with moulded joists and beams. In early C17 a parlour block of cross-wing form was added to left; it has an ovolo-moulded briding beam and vesigial wind-braced butt-purlin roof. The originally hipped roofed service cell was extended to right in C16/C17. Thomas Charles held the manor in c.1250; the house is associated with an incomplete medieval moat.

Listing NGR: TM0332853713