Listed Building: ASHMANS HALL (282158)

BARSHAM BUNGAY ROAD TM 48 NW 5/7 Ashmans Hall 1-9-53 - II* Large country house. Circa 1820 for Robert Rede. White brick, with a stone band at first floor level and a stone parapet with cornice. Slated roof. 2 storeys. Approximately square main block with lower curved wings to the west enclosing the stable yard. 5-bay entrance front arranged 1:3:1, the centre bays recessed. Inset sash windows with slender glazing bars under flat brick arches; the outer bays each had a tripartite ground floor window set in an arched recess, that to the right now blocked. All the windows are damaged or missing. Recessed portico of 4 stone Ionic columns with entablature. Central doorway with 8-panel door in 2 leaves, architrave and cornice on console brackets. 9-bay right hand return front, with a central 3-light 2-storey semi-circular bay with domed roof. The rear elevation is similar to the main front but without the entrance portico. The curved wings are arcaded to the stable yard. The wings terminate in 2-storey blocks, 5 x 2 bays, the centre bay set forward and pedimented and with the openings set within a full-height arched recess. Fine central domed staircase hall, perhaps modelled on the one at nearby Worlingham Hall. The entrance to the hall has a screen of 2 Doric columns flanked by arched recesses. Imperial stair of stone, with a wrought iron balustrade and mahogany handrail. There is a first floor gallery comprising 4 pairs of Ionic columns with arched recesses between each pair and a dentil cornice: much of this is now damaged or missing. At the time of survey (May 1985) the house was derelict and considerably damaged internally with many of the ceilings collapsed. Listing NGR: TM4128289735