2 Friar's Street and 40 Market Hill, Sudbury, Suffolk

Summary

Former C17 inn and adjoining medieval hall house, altered in the C17, C18 and C19, and converted to shops and flats in the early C21.

Description

Former C17 inn and adjoining medieval hall house, altered in the C17, C18 and C19, and converted to shops and flats in the early C21.

MATERIALS: timber frame with wattle and daub panels, rendered and painted pale grey. Roof covering of slate over south end, and red clay tiles over north end.

PLAN: the building forms part of an east-facing terrace on the west side of Friar’s Street as it joins Market Hill to the north, and has a long rear wing.

EXTERIOR: the lower part at the south end (occupied by Javelin with flats above) has two storeys and an attic. The low pitched roof is not visible from the street, except for the tall brown brick chimney stack on the left hand side, which is C19 or earlier. The first floor is lit by two eight-over-eight pane sash windows with slender glazing bars. Above, the attic floor is lit by two four-over-four pane sashes in moulded surrounds, positioned immediately under the eaves. The old pub sign for The Anchor hangs between the first-floor windows. The larger part of the building at the north end (occupied by Askew’s with flats above) has two storeys and an attic under a rebuilt gambrel roof with a red brick chimney stack just below the ridge on the left hand side. The two parts of the building have the same eaves line but the north part has higher ceilings and a much higher roof. It is lit on the first floor by three windows: the first is a pair of vertical two-over-two pane sashes set within a moulded surround with a wide central mullion, followed by two six-over-six pane sashes in a moulded surround. The fenestration appears to be of C19 date. The attic is lit by two, early C21 gabled dormers wholly within the roof space. A late C20 shopfront with timber fascia boards spans the front of the building.

The rear elevation of the south part has a C20 fire escape leading up to a first-floor door in a small extension. The left part of the elevation is obscured by the two-storey rear wing which has a steeply pitched roof and is faced in brick on the ground-floor, and plastered on the first floor, painted pale grey overall. The south elevation has a C20 vertical plank door and irregular fenestration on both floors, mostly C20 in date. It was not possible to gain access to see the north side of the rear wing, which is said to retain some early pargetted plaster, or to see the rear (west) elevation of the north part of the building.

INTERIOR: this has been greatly altered over the years and now consists of ground-floor shops with flats above. Much of the surviving timber framing is covered up. During the post-fire restoration of the north part of the building an isometric sketch was done of the exposed framing before it was again covered up. This part of the building is said to demonstrate good quality carpentry with moulded main timbers and evidence for the location of original doors and windows. The two-bay structure has a jettied frontage, corner posts and wall plate, but no other surviving framing of the east (front) wall. The north wall has close studding on both floors, a mid-rail and, at first-floor level, diagonal bracing from each corner post to the central post. The rear gallery, designed to give access via staircases to the first-floor rooms, retains some close-studding with diagonal bracing between the posts along the rear wall. The front wall of the gallery retains posts indicating the position of two former openings into the rooms on the first-floor which has an east-west bridging beam and north-south tie-beam. On the ground floor a C17 plank and muntin screen (designed as a draught screen rather than a structural partition), which divided the room into two equal halves, was moved against the north end wall during the restoration.

The main area of painted decoration exposed after the fire is associated with a first-floor room of the former inn, on the north gable end. It is carried on lime hair plaster applied across the timber frame and daub infill, and the studs are keyed for plaster. There is more than one scheme of decoration in this area but the primary scheme consists of a top border containing a hunting scene. Some figures are on horseback and one is on foot. A narrow band contains text and the date: ‘…Lord to remaine ANNO DOMMINI: 1630’. Below are a fox and an ape and possibly a cockerel interspersed in rich foliage/ flowers. The bottom band is in grey. A reddish-brown colour is applied on top of this scheme. A row of tenterhooks is visible on the tie-beam above, indicating that a textile was hung in this room. There is evidence for C17 painted decoration in the former gallery, especially on the west and east walls. In the ground-floor room (below that which contains the main scheme) there are extensive remains of grey/black paint on the timbers. All of these painted schemes are covered over with protective boarding.

In the south part of the building there is some exposed timber framing, including a substantial jowled post and chamfered bridging beams on the ground floor, but it is very fragmentary. In the rear wing the ground-floor room at the west end has a roughly chamfered bridging beam and joists. The close-studding on the front wall frame is exposed at first-floor level, as is the wall plate. The bay division at the end has a cambered tie-beam supported on jowled posts, and down bracing on the south end. There is a substantial tie-beam to the west of this, also supported by posts.

History

2 Friar’s Street and 40 Market Hill was formerly one of the old inns of Sudbury. An advertisement of 1766 described the Old White Hart, as it was then called, as ‘newly fronted and very commodious […] with four parlours, partly wainscoted and hung with paper, six chambers, a very good Assembly Room, four garrets, a large kitchen’. The building has a complex and multi-phase history. The lower element at the south end (occupied by Javelin with flats above) is the earliest part which, on the evidence of a few exposed structural timbers, is thought to have originated as a medieval hall house. It was altered in the C16 and a ceiling was inserted in the C17, and it has since been further altered. The line of the eaves was originally much lower and may only have been raised in the C19. The rear wing dates from at least the C16 and is likely to have contained a kitchen or lodgings, or both. The two-bay timber-framed structure at the north end (occupied by Askew’s with flats above) was built circa 1630 with a gallery along the rear which would have been roofed at right angles with a series of gables facing the rear. It originally continued northwards into the site of 41-42 Market Hill but was truncated when that building was constructed in the C19. Around 1800 the original roof over the south end was replaced with a wide gambrel roof that spanned the rear gallery, providing more attic accommodation, and the jettied first floor was altered. The building was no longer an inn during this period, having become a private house. At some point it then became the Anchor Inn but in the early C21 the building was converted into retail use, and new shopfronts were inserted at ground-floor level.

In 2015 the destruction by fire of the adjoining building, 41-42 Market Hill, revealed a C17 wall painting in the north gable end of 40 Market Hill, and subsequent restoration work uncovered further painted decoration of a mostly contemporary date. The main area of painting is on the first-floor room of the former inn. It is dated 1630 and depicts a hunting scene which is often associated with inns of this period. The painting is part of a scheme of painted decoration found on the ground and first floors, much of which is carried out in a grey/ black palette. Painted decoration in buildings became prevalent when larger glazed windows (as opposed to small unglazed ones) and chimneys (as opposed to open hearths) made rooms cleaner and more visible. In Suffolk, over 400 secular wall paintings from the period around 1500 to 1700 have so far been uncovered. The richly patterned interiors popular from circa 1575 were replaced about 1610-1620 by a new taste for plain schemes. These enhanced the timber structure by usually applying a single colour to the timber frame and leaving infill panels unpainted or painted white.

During the restoration work following the fire, at least twenty different wallpapers were also found in the north end of the building, dating from about 1820 to 1900. Along with the painted decoration, these have been preserved in situ, and covered over with protective boarding. The roof and attic storey over the north end of the building had to be rebuilt due to fire damage.

Reasons for Listing

2 Friar’s Street and 40 Market Hill, a former C17 inn and adjoining medieval hall house, altered in the C17, C18 and C19, and converted to shops and flats in the early C21, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it has evolved from the medieval period to the C19, thus providing important evidence of vernacular building practices and techniques over at least five centuries;

* a significant proportion of the timber frame survives which casts light on the original plan form at the north end of the building;

* the painted decoration is a rare and important survival which provides valuable evidence of the history of vernacular decoration;

* the collection of over twenty different wallpapers dating from around 1820 to 1900 illuminate the changing taste of interior design throughout the Regency and Victorian period;

Group value:

* it has strong group value with many surrounding listed buildings which altogether form a streetscape of considerable historic and architectural significance.

External Links

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