The Bridewell With Forecourt And Garden Walls

The Bridewell, located on Bridewell Lane in Botesdale, is a former house that dates back to around 1810, with alterations made in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is constructed of red brick and features a hipped roof covered with machine tiles. It has three bays and two storeys, with a central entrance that includes steps leading up to a partially raised and partially glazed fielded panelled door. This door is framed by an architrave with a blocked semi-circular fanlight and is sheltered by a later hipped open porch supported by octagonal timber uprights.

The windows are glazing bar sashes set in shallow reveals, with gauged brick flat arched heads and timber sills. The first floor has outer 16-pane sashes. The building has an offset plinth and dentilled brick eaves. The side elevations feature extruded axial stacks with double offsets, and a mix of casements and sashes with cambered heads. At the rear, there is an extruded kitchen stack attached to a continuous lean-to outshut made of flint and brick, covered with pantiles.

Inside, there is a mid-19th century staircase with slat balusters and a moulded, ramped handrail. The rear lean-to is connected to rebuilt outshuts that link to original walls standing 3 to 4 metres high, which have rounded coping and an offset plinth, with some pilaster strips. These walls enclose a garden at the rear measuring about 25 square metres and extend forward about 25 metres to the sides of the forecourt. At the front, small ramps lead up to piers topped with ball finials, and there are iron railings on low quadrant spur walls further forward.