Baylham Hall

Baylham Hall is an early 17th-century manor house, with alterations from the later 17th century to the mid-19th century. It represents a substantial fragment of a larger country house, indicated by records of 22 hearths in the 1674 Hearth Tax returns. The house is two storeys and has attics. It is constructed of red brick, with a band of moulded brickwork at first-floor level and a dentilled brick cornice beneath the eaves. Flat pilasters mark the corners, and Dutch gables with external chimneys are at the ends of the main range. A slightly projecting bay to the left has a truncated segmental window pediment at eaves level, suggesting a former gable that was later hipped. The roof is tiled. A short length of the original carved oak eaves fascia is preserved in the rear wing.

A 17th-century brick chimney stands at the rear, featuring the bases of three octagonal shafts. The house has mid-19th century small-pane sash windows with sidelights and transoms. Several 4- and 8-light 17th-century mullioned and transomed windows are at the rear; these are brick, rendered to simulate the quoining of limestone. The entrance is a 19th-century 6-panelled door with fielded upper pairs and an oblong fanlight.

The interior features a very fine, full-height original staircase with massive square newels, sunk geometric panelling, pierced finials, and four heavy square balusters to each flight. On the first-floor landing, a pair of doorways, one with an original panelled door, are flanked by oak Doric pilasters. A moulded arched parlour fireplace features similar pilasters and an enriched mantel. The ceiling beams in this room and in a rear chamber have running floral designs in plaster; other rooms in the front range have similar, though plainer, plasterwork.

The main range originally extended northwards, the surviving portion representing the hall and parlour. The rear wing, likely contemporary but altered, originally contained parlours or lodgings and subsequently became service accommodation following the loss of the north service range in the 18th or early 19th century.

The house is set within a partly infilled medieval moat.