48, 49 And 49A, Churchgate Street

House, later divided into three, with a corner shop. The core dates from around 1300, with early 16th-century alterations, and late 18th- to early 19th-century modifications and extensions. The building is timber-framed with roughcast rendering and plain tile roofs.

The exterior consists of two storeys with an attic and cellar, positioned on a corner site with frontages to both Churchgate Street and College Street (where it is numbered 1). The Churchgate Street elevation has a three-window range and the College Street frontage a two-window range; all windows are 16-pane sashes in flush cased frames. Number 49A, the corner shop on the ground storey only, features a 19th-century shop front with glazed windows to each street, a half-glazed corner door, panelled stall boards, and a continuous moulded cornice and fascia. A lead-covered segmental-headed dormer on the College Street side contains a 12-pane sash window. The three house doors have doorcases with plain wood pilasters and flat cornice hoods.

The interior reveals exceptional medieval carpentry. The cellar, which overlaps with the adjacent building, contains re-used stone blocks. The rear section of number 48 preserves two bays of a former aisled open hall dating from around 1300. In the party wall with number 49 is part of one end truss with passing braces; the original rear wall of the hall stood further south.

A chimney-stack with a single hearth was inserted in the early 16th century several feet in front of the truss. Its back wall is constructed of large limestone blocks, while the front and area around the hearth are faced with Tudor brick. The fireplace jambs are of chamfered stone blocks with a 20th-century replacement lintel. Herringbone brickwork at the back of the hearth, not central to the present fireplace, suggests an earlier form of the hearth.

A large reused ceiling beam, showing evidence of charring, is carved on its sides and soffit with a variant of the folded leaf motif in which leaves encircle a straight stem. It is brattished on the side facing the stack with housings at one end for moulded joists. A short trimmer and plain unchamfered joists connect it to the stack brickwork.

On the upper storey, substantial studding and a blocked window opening in the original front wall have been exposed, revealing that the house originally stood back from the street. The building was extended forward during early 19th-century remodelling, when the roof was replaced at a shallow pitch. The upper front wall retains remains of early 17th-century painted decoration in a black-and-white design of formalised flowers set in surrounds.

Number 49, together with number 1 College Street, originally formed a storied and jettied cross-wing to the aisled hall in number 48. The south gable wall adjoining number 2 College Street contains the remains of an end truss with passing braces halved against the collar and across double tie-beams. Wallplates along the east and west walls are clasped between these tie-beams; on the west side they overhang, indicating an original long jetty. The ground storey ceiling-beams include a dragon-beam, showing that the Churchgate Street front was also jettied with a corner-post.

Although the 13th-century remains are incomplete, they are sufficient to indicate that this is the earliest timber-framed building found in the town. The evidence of clasping tie-beams is so far unique in Suffolk.