Wortham House

Wortham House is a large house, originally the Rectory, dating back to the 16th century. It has undergone significant extensions and alterations, notably in the 17th century and again between 1827 and 1828 for Reverend R. Cobbold. The house is constructed with a timber frame, plastered and extended in white brick, with shallow pitched glazed pantiled roofs and some slates. The original core is three bays, with earlier two-bay additions to the left and rear, and a five-bay cross range added to the right, creating a T-shaped plan.

The front entrance originally featured a jettied core. A central entrance now leads through a 19th-century lean-to conservatory, housing a four-panelled door with framing pilasters and slate roofing above the passage leading to the inner entrance. French windows are located to the left, and the first floor has architraved small sashes and a two-light casement. A simple cornice sits below a raised roof with a hip to the left, and a separate ridge is positioned in front of the taller main roof. A central axial ridge stack, with a 16th-century base raised in the 19th century, is present, alongside a 19th-century skylight to the right. A slightly recessed section to the left has a disused entrance, 19th-century glazing bar casements, a rebuilt early stack within the roof slope, a single-story lean-to outshut at the left gable end, and a servants' bell. The 1828 block to the right has a five-bay garden front with a slightly projecting centre bay featuring broad pilaster strips at all angles. The ground floor windows are tall 6:9 pane sashes with gauged brick flat arched heads, while the first floor has 12-pane sashes, a timber cornice, and a capped parapet. The roof is hipped and includes stacks to the rear in the outer bays. The left return to the entrance front has a blocked first-floor window.

The rear elevation of the early range features earlier bays to the centre, containing a six-raised panelled door with a traceried rectangular fanlight, a contemporary doorcase with a hood, and an external 19th-century stack with offsets to the left. The fenestration is mixed, with box dormers and a break in the eaves line over a later colourwashed brick section to the right, which has an internal stack.

Internally, the early bay to the left displays a quirked wave moulded axial binding beam and joists. To the right is an inserted early 19th-century open well staircase with slat balusters, a moulded wreathed handrail, and a segmental vaulted ceiling. The 17th-century bays feature a small early 18th-century dogleg staircase with vase balusters, first floor reverse curved brace in walling, a stop-chamfered axial binding beam, re-roofed early sections, and 19th-century plaster cornices in the later block. Reverend R. Cobbold, Rector from 1824 to 1877, wrote accounts of Suffolk, including an account of Wortham in 1860 with watercolours of parish buildings.