78 And 80, High Street

Two houses, numbers 78 and 80, stand on the High Street in Needham Market. They were originally built in the 15th century as a three-cell open hall house, with subsequent alterations in the 16th and 19th centuries. The houses are two storeys high and have five windows each. They are timber-framed and have a pebble-dashed exterior, with plain tiled roofs and rear chimneys constructed from red brick. The windows are small-pane sashes, with number 78 featuring a pair of late 19th-century shop windows with large panes, and number 80 containing an earlier 19th-century square bay shop window with a flat, leaded roof. Number 78 has a 19th-century four-panelled door, the upper pair being glazed, while number 80 has a plank door, possibly from the 17th century, which has been altered into a stable-type door. Number 78 includes a formerly open hall with a storeyed end cell to the right. Number 80 contains another storeyed cell. Some widely-spaced studwork is visible in number 80, along with convex arched wind-bracing. The houses have a complete coupled-rafter roof with signs of smoke-blackening above the hall. A rear wing of three bays was added to number 80 in the mid-16th century, featuring a crown post roof with square posts and plank bracing. On the left hand gable, currently facing into the roofspace of a later 18th-century building, is a plasterwork oval cartouche displaying the date 1712 and the initials T.F.C., with a border containing fragments of coloured glass.