Lanchester Antiques Old House The Gables

This is a group of three buildings – a shop and two houses – located on Debenham High Street. Originally dating to the late 15th century, the core of the property was a high-quality open hall house, with a contemporary solar (private living space) and a commercial cross-wing on the right side. A service wing to the left was added around 1600, with further rear wings constructed in the late 16th and 18th centuries.

The building is timber-framed and rendered smooth, with some exposed timber studwork at the rear, and has a plaintiled roof. It is two storeys high, with a partial attic. The original cross-wings project outwards towards the street on thick brackets. Most windows are sash windows with glazing bars. The solar wing features a three-light canted bay window on the ground floor. A shopfront dating to around 1900 is located to the left. Number 23 has a mid-20th century half-glazed door set within a flat hood, while number 25 has a six-panel door. There are three flat-roofed dormers in the roof.

A substantial internal chimney stack is a key feature, with four detached octagonal shafts, the caps of which were lost but rebuilt in 1987, in a modified form. A smaller 19th-century stack is set against the side wall of the right cross-wing. A rear wing, added in the 18th century to the shop, is roughcast-rendered and has a glazed black tile roof, and includes a distinctive ogee-headed window with decorative glazing.

Inside, the upper floor reveals the original frame structure, although much of the timber is concealed elsewhere. The former open hall retains a hollow-chamfered cambered tie beam, and supports a fine octagonal crown post with a moulded base, cap, and four-way bracing. The roof timbers above the hall are largely concealed. The tie beam over the solar features mortices for what were originally heavy arched braces, and has an intact roof above, also with a moulded octagonal crown post. A solar window, briefly revealed during re-rendering, exhibits traceried lights. The original cross-wing was open to the street, with the ground floor used for commercial purposes, and has a further moulded octagonal crown post in the roof over the chamber above. In the mid-16th century, the open hall was floored over, and a stack was added at the upper end. The parlour fireplace lintol has a late 16th-century painted design of foliage and flowers in decorative panels, using white, pink, and red paint on a black background. The parlour ceiling has particularly fine mid-17th-century plasterwork, including a central beam with running vine foliage and four panels featuring wavy foliage borders, each containing a bold wreath enclosing a Tudor rose and four surrounding motifs. This is considered the most substantial medieval house in the village.