Hadleigh, George Street - Listed buildings
George Street is a lovely reasonably quiet road with lots of old properties in it. So, looking at some listed properties here, I am starting with number 3-5 which was probable a public house in times past.
It`s a C15-C16 2 storey timber framed and plastered building. The upper storey projects at the front with massive close-set joists. Although it is now part of Partridges store, it was the Moulders Arms. Apparently, it was given its name referring to the iron foundry once located behind the building.
Crossing Magdalene Street, you arrive in George Street proper, I like to think. This property is no.15 and is a C17 property which has been altered, fittingly called Tudor Gables.
Next door to Tudor Gables is this lovely building called The Old House which was previously listed as no19 and 20. It is probably C17, and is a two storey timber-framed and plastered structure with a cross wing at the east end with the upper storey projecting on curved brackets. The main block has a ground floor only and attic dormers. I took a photograph (below) in 2010, of the front door with the small side windows and rather pretty hanging baskets.
Front door of The Old House
Then we come to this cute cottage squeezed between The Old House and Thelwyn House. It is called Chip Cottage, which seems rather appropriate I think! Its probably of C18 origin.
Then for something completely different - a thatched cottage. This is unusual in Hadleigh, this being the only one. Its date is on the side wall, as seen above. Generaly noted as No 42, it is sometimes listed as 40 and 42.
This one is The Cock Inn, dated C18, and is a two storey timber framed and plastered building with tiled roof. It has four gabled dormers on the front, the most easterly one having a date in the gable of 1722. It has a one storey extension north at west end. The wrought iron bracket to the inn sign is probable C18.
The Georgian East House has two large wings on the south largely rebuilt or refaced in C19 red brick and for a number years had been used for varied activities including a community center. In March 2013, plans by Babergh District Council to redevelop the site and build houses on the land behind were withdrawn after strong local protest. Opponents of the plan had argued that the adjacent land had been used as a village green for the previous 20 years. In 2018, the building was renovated into two private homes: East House and West Lodge by period property restorers Richard Abel and Ruth McCabe-Abel. The couple were awarded the Noel Turner Award by the Hadleigh Society in 2019 for their sympathetic restoration of East House and West Lodge.
The Row Chapel of the Blessed Mary Magdalene and Saint Catherine - to give it its full title. This chapel is a mid-15th century timber-framed building that, since 1497, has served as the chapel to the Pykenham Almshouses. In 1887, the almshouses were rebuilt in brick and three years later the chapel was restored. Hadleigh Grand Feoffment Charity administer this site in trust for the town.
I have not been inside but hope to in the future. The current pandemic rules that out at the moment I am afraid.
No. 48 George Street
A medieval hall-house with a cross-wing to the south and two storey C19 addition to the north in the place of the north service wing. It is a house of C14 or C15 date, remodelled in the C16, C17 and C18; converted into four tenements in the C19 and restored to one dwelling in the early C21. Quite a history!
The earliest phase of building appears to date to between 1380 and 1420 and comprised an open hall with a parlour crosswing to the west. The service end to the east, possibly also in a crosswing, has been lost to C19 remodelling. Between c 1560 and 1590, the building was significantly reconfigured. The front and rear were faced with brick, and projecting gables with multi-light mullion windows added. At the same time, the orientation of the building changed. The main stack, stair tower and porch were added to the street frontage and the principal façade switched to the rear, opening onto a private garden. The hall was ceiled over and the upper chambers of hall and parlour were panelled. On the ground floor, the hall had painted decoration to the walls. In the mid C17, a further painting scheme was applied to the ground floor walls of the hall, and a decorative plaster vine-scroll motif embellished the cornices and bridging beams of the upper hall.
Around 1700, an external chimney stack was added to the west gable end. By the late C18, the former parlour had been divided into two and some panelling removed. An outshut was added to the west end to accommodate a winder stair. In the C19, the building was poorly sub-divided into 4 dwellings, with an additional wing added to the east on the site of the service range and an outshot added to the George Street elevation. During this period, casement windows were inserted into the rear elevation and the late-C16 principal door removed. Many of the windows on the George Street frontage were blocked. The rear stair went out of use in the C20.
The earliest documentary reference to the hall dates to 1661, when the building was known as Thorpes, perhaps after an owner of the property. It is known that in 1814, the Wesleyan Methodists purchased the building, leasing it to the Primitive Methodists (known as Ranters) in 1836. A map of that date shows the building sub-divided into three; it seems that the parlour crosswing was used as a chapel at the time. In 1846, the land to the east was purchased for a chapel which was constructed in 1848 and enlarged in 1875. The building has been restored. The C19 internal partitions have been removed and the C16 plan-form reinstated. The panelling and decorative plasterwork in the upper floor have been cleaned, conserved and remain in situ. The C17 and earlier paint schemes on the ground floor have been recorded and covered over to ensure their continued preservation, but are no longer on view.
No 22-26 George Street
This C15-C16 property is a two storey building which is timber framed and plastered. It has cross wings on the east and west ends, the east one having a projecting upper storey in the front, sitting on curved brackets with moulded capitals and shafts. The west cross wing was the same but has been underbuilt in front.
The old Dairy, No.111 George Street
Another rather grand C15 hall house, which is a two storey, timber framed and plastered building. It has a contemporary cross wing at the west end with the upper storey projecting on curved brackets on the front and a hipped gable. The ground floor front of the cross wing is faced in brick and flint rubble, with the ground floor main block faced in brick. It has a large exterior chimney and an east side cross wing as well. It is called the old Dairy but as yet I have found no information about it.
There a numbers of other listed buildings in the street but this is a sample of what I considered, the most interesting ones.
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