Doveden Hall

Doveden Hall is a house dating from the 15th century, with alterations and extensions made in the late 16th century. It has two storeys and attics, featuring a four-window range. The building is timber-framed and rendered, with the front encased in 19th-century gault brick, which is now painted. The roofs are covered with plaintiles and include fine 16th-century rear chimneys made of red brick, characterized by a row of four octagonal shafts with moulded bases, linked at the top by an oblong cap, along with a pair of similar shafts serving the parlour block. The windows are 19th-century, featuring gauged brick flat arches and two-light small-pane casements. There is a boarded entrance door located at the side.

Originally, Doveden Hall was a 15th-century three-cell open hall house facing west, with the service end located in a projecting cross-wing at the south end and a parlour cell at the north end. Significant alterations in the late 16th century included flooring over and converting the open hall into a kitchen, nearly rebuilding the service end cross-wing, and extending it eastwards to create the main south-facing range. Within this extension, a new parlour was formed, featuring full wainscotting and a frieze with a carved leaf motif, an integral carved overmantel with strapwork and arcading in panels between crude classical pilasters, and an open fireplace with a four-centred arch.

Historically, the site was home to a messuage that was granted, along with lands, to the Abbey of St. Edmunds in 1292 to support St. Petronilla's Chapel in Bury St. Edmunds. The current house was leased to John Smith of Great Horningsheath in 1522.