16 And 17, Churchgate Street

This is a house, originally a single dwelling, now divided into two properties at 16 and 17 Churchgate Street, Bury St Edmunds. It dates back to the 16th century and has been altered in the 18th and 19th centuries. The building is timber-framed and now rendered with a jettied front, and has a plain tiled roof.

The exterior has two storeys and an attic. The front has a three-window arrangement, with 16-pane sash windows in decorative casings. The ground floor features an 18th-century bay with a moulded sill supported by curved brackets, and an early 19th-century shop window with moulded pilasters and a cornice, both containing fixed 15-pane windows. There are two 20th-century gabled dormers with projecting eaves and small-paned casement windows. Solid arched brackets support the jettied front, which was widened to accommodate the later sash windows. The doorways have moulded surrounds; No.16 has a four-panelled, half-glazed door, and No.17 an eight-panelled door with sunk panels.

The interior originally comprised a three-cell, four-bay house, divided into two in the early 19th century by stud partitions. No.16 now contains one-and-a-half bays, and No.17 the remainder. Original timber framing is visible, including main beams, posts, wallplates, and some studding. The end bays were partitioned off, creating a two-bay single-storey hall in the centre, once heated by a chimney stack on the rear wall. The main cross-beams are heavy with a chamfer and curved stepped stops. On the upper storey of No.17, widely spaced studding and tension bracing are exposed along one partition wall, and in the front wallplate, a slightly splayed edge-halved and bridled scarf joint is visible. Long jowls are present on the main posts. Evidence suggests the end bays were formerly divided into two rooms; mortices are visible in the soffit of the main beams. In No.17 the sawn-off tenons of the partition studs are still in situ while No.16 has no associated peg-holes or tenons, suggesting the partition may have been incomplete. Roof timbers are largely concealed, and the roof structure is of a side-purlin type, probably clasped. The jetty has been widened to allow for the insertion of Georgian sash windows, a feature shared with other buildings in the town.