Flemings Antiques

Flemings Antiques, originally the guildhall of Holy Trinity, dates to the mid-15th century. A Post Office addition was likely built in the 17th century. The building is timber framed, with a plain tiled roof; the rear slope is tiled with concrete. The facade is largely roughcast-rendered, with some plastered areas to the left.

The building is two storeys with a small attic. The guildhall originally featured jetties to the front and rear, most of which have been infilled, except for a small portion at the rear retaining two original brackets. Windows are mostly from the 19th and 20th centuries. The former antique shop has an early 19th-century bowed shopfront with two windows each containing 24 panes, and a central doorway with a mid-20th-century semi-glazed door in two leaves and an oblong overlight with geometric glazing bars. A flat-roofed open porch supported by square timber posts stands in front of the shop, and above the porch is a nameboard in the form of an elaborate cartouche. A disused doorway is located centrally. The former Post Office has a flush 15-paned shop window and a 20th-century semi-glazed door, with small-paned casements above. There are two internal stacks, the earlier one on the left with a plain axial shaft.

The guildhall's interior comprises four bays. Originally, the ground floor was divided into two equal rooms, while the upper floor was a single full-length room open to the roof, and it was unheated. The ground floor ceiling has heavy, plain joists. Exposed studding is visible in the south gable end on the upper floor. The north gable end retains the original first-floor doorway with a four-centred arch. Notable roof features include cambered tie beams with arched braces rising from buttress-shafts on the wallposts, queen-posts (plain except for chamfers on the inner face, braced to the arcade plates), and further cambered tie beams carried by short, chamfered crown-posts with four-way bracing. A 16th-century stack was inserted in the third bay from the south. The interior of the former Post Office has not been inspected.

The guildhall was referred to as ‘the new hall’ of the Gild of the Holy Trinity in a 1463 Bloodhall Manor rental. A circa-1850 description mentions a herringbone brick facade and a “new frontage of late years”. Structural drawings are available from Mr T. Easton, Bedfield Hall.