Old School House

STONHAM ASPAL PETTAUGH ROAD TM 15 NW 5/182 Old School House - 9-12-55 - II

House, late C16 with alterations of early C17 and later. Originally of 2-cell end-chimney plan; the plan was "reversed" to 3-cell lobby-entrance form in C17. 2 storeys. Timber-framed and plastered with cable-pattern pargetting restored in C20. Thatched roof, hipped at left hand end, with axial chimney of red brick. Mainly C20 casements. C20 boarded and battened entrance door with open lean-to pantiled porch on posts. The original C16 work has studwork with both arch and tension-bracing and a coupled-rafter roof. A chimney was placed in the cross-entry in C17; the service cell to left was given a new upper floor with an ovolo-moulded binding joist, to become the new parlour. Above the parlour fireplace is a mid or late C18 painting of a hunting scene painted directly onto the plaster, but covering a deep C17 painted frieze of chevrons. There are believed to be other sections of painted decoration now concealed. The service cell to right is higher and of C18 workmanship, but with possible earlier core. The single-storey brick and glazed pantiled roofed service wing to front right is mainly of early C19, but with an earlier timber-framed core. In 1612, the Revd. John Metcalf, (rector of this parish) bequeathed this house, then called Smiths "for a schoolmaster, to teach freely the youth of Stonham and Pettaugh".

Listing NGR: TM1425859246