Rookyard Farmhouse

Rookyard Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from the late 15th century or early 16th century, with remodelling that occurred in the late 16th century. It is likely a three-cell open hall house featuring two cross-wings. The hall range has one storey and attics, while the cross-wings are two storeys tall. The structure is timber-framed and plastered, with both cross-wings having end-jetties at the front supported by brackets. The roofs are covered with plain tiles, and there is an axial chimney, with its shaft rebuilt in red brick during the late 18th or 19th century. A chimney at the rear of the right-hand wing features a plastered sawtooth shaft dating from around 1600.

The hall includes a gabled dormer with plain tiled roofing and mid-20th century casements. There are various 19th and 20th century casements, along with one 18th century window on the first floor of the left wing. The entrance door is a four-panelled design from the 19th century, with the upper panels being glazed. The right-hand cross-wing likely dates from around 1500 and consists of a two-bay parlour with a solar above. The open truss features a cambered tie beam with large hollow-chamfered archbraces that rise from polygonal shafts, and it has a plain but heavy crownpost roof. The central crownpost is rectangular and has two-way braces along with a heavy collar beneath the collar-purlin, which ties a pair of principal rafters—a distinctive detail for Suffolk.

At the rear of this wing, there is a lower block that was added in the late 16th century, featuring a clasped purlin roof. The internal chimney here, dating from around 1600, includes part of a newel staircase. The hall has a first floor with a massive early 16th century roll-moulded bridging beam and moulded joists, which may be an original feature. There was once a large fireplace backing against a cross-entry at the left-hand end. The side purlin roof dates from around 1600. Additionally, a lower two-bay range at the rear of the left-hand wing is original and has a similar plain crownpost roof. The front section of this wing was rebuilt in the late 16th century and features a good windbraced clasped-purlin roof, unchamfered floor joists, a lintelled open fireplace, and a blocked ovolo-mullioned window.