Swiss Farm Butchers The Debenham Gallery

Art gallery, shop and house comprising three main structural sections dating from the 15th to 16th centuries, located on the east side of Debenham High Street.

The building consists of an early 15th-century Wealden-type range running parallel to the street (originally in three separate occupations); a high-quality early to mid-16th-century rear wing; and a mid-16th-century cross-wing to the north of the earliest section. The structure is timber-framed with sections that are plastered or roughcast-rendered, with plaintiled roofing. The cross-wing features decorative bargeboards. The building is two storeys with underbuilt jetties to the High Street and a continuous jetty to Water Lane.

The facade is dominated by a fine early to mid-16th-century two-storey porch with a jettied upper floor showing exposed studs and brick nogging. The porch has 19th-century scalloped bargeboards with spike finial, an open four-centred arch with leaf-carved spandrels, and an original upper window with moulded mullions. Within the porch sits a 15th-century two-centre arched doorway with an old plank door; an opposing doorway is visible internally. The porch is flanked by late 19th-century projecting brick shopfronts: to the left with eight-paned windows, and to the right with smaller single-paned windows fitted with 19th-century hinged internal cross-slatted shutters and 20th-century doors. The first floor has casement windows; those to No.3 retain 18th-century square-leaded panes. To the extreme right are one bay of small-paned sash windows and a six-panel door. An internal stack is present. The return front to Water Lane has two mullioned windows at first-floor level, one original and one dating to around 1600.

The north side of the rear wing (partly concealed by a 17th-century addition) displays exposed close studding with a jettied upper floor on original brackets springing from carved buttress-shafts. The bressummer features rope-pattern carving. An original oriel window with a carved sill and arched heads to the lights preserves some early diamond-leaded glass. Some mid-20th-century pargetting is present on Water Lane.

The interior of the Wealden range contains a two-bay former open hall with an open truss featuring a cambered tie beam with missing braces supporting a cross-quadrate crown-post with thick four-way bracing at the head. The roof timbers, heavily sooted, are largely intact. Two four-centre arched doorways from the cross-passage provided access to a shop (front) and service room (rear). The embattled mid rail shows evidence for shop windows and a shop doorway adjacent to the cross-entry. Massive ceiling joists show evidence for a stairtrap at the rear. One bay of the original two-bay parlour end was lost when the adjacent Angel Inn was constructed.

A mid-16th-century inserted hall ceiling of very high quality features richly-moulded cross-beams, ogee-moulded joists, and a moulded cornice. A contemporary screen with moulded muntins is present. A 16th-century stack was inserted in the upper bay of the hall. The rear wing has a further moulded ceiling and moulded fireplace lintel. Many blocked windows with moulded mullions are visible, those on the south side extending the full width of two bays. This range has a plain crown-post roof. Both the Wealden range and the rear wing contain numerous 16th and 17th-century doors with good original ironwork. A particularly heavy door into the porch chamber features two layers of planking.

The north cross-wing is four bays deep, with the front three bays dating to the mid-16th century. The ceiling of the front bay has a dragon beam and very heavy closely-spaced joists with remains of red ochre colouring. First-floor studding is intact and a queen-post roof is present. Architectural drawings of the frame, mouldings and interior photographs are held by Mr T. Easton at Bedfield Hall.