81 And 81A, Southgate Street

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8663SW SOUTHGATE STREET 639-1/12/568 (West side) 07/08/52 Nos.81 AND 81A (Formerly Listed as: SOUTHGATE STREET (West side) Nos.81, 81A AND 82)

GV II

House, now divided into 2. Later C15, much restored in the 1950s. Timber-framed and jettied; roughcast rendered with applied mock timbering across the upper part of the front. Slate roofs. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attics; cellar to No.81. The jetty is supported by 2 small brackets. Ground storey windows with C20 metal casements. Recessed C20 entries with brick surrounds. Extensions at the rear. INTERIOR: cellar below No.81 has a C19 vaulted brick roof over older walls of flint, brick and stone. Framing is exposed along most of the rear wall of 81 with a middle rail and widely-spaced studs. A stop splayed scarf in the wallplate and a shutter slide with a 4-light diamond mullioned window below it: the mullions are in situ and the sill is unusually wide. On the ground storey a boxed-in main beam may have part of a partition wall with a doorhead and the remains of a cross entry beside it. On the upper storey the cambered tie-beam of an open truss is supported by heavy arched braces; above in the attic a cross quadrate crown-post braced only to the collar-purlin is embedded in the partition wall between the 2 houses. No.81A has no studding exposed, but the main beam and trimmer on the ground storey have wide chamfers and pyramid stops, while empty mortices in the soffit of the beam indicate that there was formerly a wide screen with a cross-entry beyond it. In the course of C16 alterations there seems to have been a reversal of layout between the 2 ends of the building with the service end shifting from south to north. In the attic storey of No.81A the crown-post was removed during C20 alterations but housings in the tie-beam indicate associated studding or downward-sloping braces.

Listing NGR: TL8608863349