Listed Building: BAYLHAM HALL (279225)

BAYLHAM TM 05 SE 2/32 Baylham Hall 9.12.55 - II* Manor house, early C17 with alterations from later C17 to mid C19. A substantial fragment of a large country house (22 hearths are recorded in the Hearth Tax returns of 1674). 2 storeys and actics. Red brick. At 1st floor level in the main range is a band formed of several courses of moulded brick, and beneath the eaves a cornice of dentilled brickwork. At the corners are flat pilasters, and at the ends of the main range are Dutch gables with external chimneys. A slightly set-forward bay to left has a truncated segmental window pediment at eaves level, indicating a former gable now hipped back. Plaintiled roofs; a short length of the original carved oak eaves fascia is preservea in the rear wing. To rear is a C17 chimney of red brick with the bases of 3 octagonal shafts. Mid C19 small-pane sashes with sidelights and transomes. A number of 4- and 8-light C17 mullioned and transomed windows at the rear are of brick, rendered to simulate splayed quoining of limestones. C19 6-panelled entrance door, the two upper pairs fielded; oblong fanlight. Very fine full-height original staircase around an open well: massive square newels with sunk geometric panelling and pierced finials, and 4 heavy square balusters to each flight. (compare Ockwells Manor, Bray, Berks: Nathaniel Lloyd, History of the English House). At the 1st floor landing a pair of doorways (one with original panelled door) are flanked by Doric pilasters of oak. A moulded archea parlour fireplace has similar pilasters and an enriched mantel. The ceiling beams in this room and in a rear chamber, have running floral designs in plaster; the other rooms in the front range all have similar plasterwork, but plainer. The main range appears to have originally extended northwards, the surviving part representing hall and parlour. The rear wing, probably contemporary but altered, contained parlours or lodgings, and reverted to service accommodation upon the loss of the north service range in C18/early C19. The house stands within a partly infilled mediaeval moat. Sandon Suffolk Houses, 1977. Listing NGR: TM0917351664