Pillar House

NEEDHAM MARKET HIGH STREET (EAST) TM 0855

3/121 No.92, (Pillar House)

9.12.55

• II

House; C14 core with complex alterations of C15 and later, and remodelling of early C19. 2 storeys, 3 windows. Timber-framed, encased at front in early C19 gault brick, with flat pilasters at corners and dentilled wooden cornice at base of parapet. Slated roof at front with internal end chimneys of gault brick. (Other roofs plaintiled). Early C19 windows with flat arches of gauged brick, flush frames and small-pane sashes (the window in the slightly set- forward bay over the entrance is a well-painted dummy). Good early C19 entrance doorway with Doric portico: fluted columns and pilasters support a flat entablature with triglyph enrichment. 4 panelled entrance door recessed between panelled reveals; oblong fanlight with border panes. A low rear wing faces the "east" window of the Parish church; its nucleus contains an open hall of perhaps early C14, with unusual features. The roof is heavily smoke- encrusted and in 2 very unequal bays. At the depleted open truss is part of an octagonal crownpost with simple capital and 4 straight square-sectioned braces. A single-bay cell adjacent to the hall retains its roof, but both cells are otherwise very depleted. A wing at right angles was added, perhaps in early C15, beside the High Street. It has widely-spaced studwork with very long tension-braces; the 2-bay solar has a complete original roof with a massive cross-quadrate crownpost at the open truss. In mid C16 an upper floor of roll-moulded beams and joists was inserted into the hall, with a large fireplace in the cross-passage; a further cell was also added to the rear, this having a blocked window in the gable with moulded mullions. A short second rear wing was added c.1600.

Listing NGR: TM0879155158