Monument record BSE 024 - Moyses Hall, 41/41A Cornhill

Moyse's Hall, circa 1180 (now used as a museum).
When Moyse's Hall was originally scheduled (Suffolk 36), the extension was still part of a shop and none of its interesting features were visible. Its walls are of flint and its fine timber roof has been dated by C A Hewett to the C14. On the ground floor are three wide brick arches, one in the Norman part of the hall, one in the extension and one linking the two sections. These arches have been dated by the Brick Society to the early C16. Windows were later inserted in the Elizabethan period. There can be no doubt that the extension was built in the Middle Ages to form an integral part of Moyse's Hall and that it remained so until comparatively recent times.
Moyse's Hall is one of a select group of surviving C12 stone-built houses (compare those at Norwich and Lincoln) and the extension is now an integral part of it. The extension has been well restored. Sight of a complex crown-post unimpeded by later ceiling etc, is a rarity (S1).
November 1997: Descheduled (S1).
May 2000: Record number sf6724 accidentally deleted - new replacement number sf18894 designated.
March 2001: Monitoring carried out during construction and refurbishment work at Moyses Hall Museum. Footing trenches excavated next to Brentgovel Street uncovered a medieval ditch (c.12th-14th century) which was aligned north-south. Two pits are thought to be post-medieval and two brick lined cellars were also exposed. A range of finds, mostly of pottery, were made from within the Museum and these were catalogued with the Monitoring Report (S3).

From NHRE record:

Moyse's Hall, now the Borough Museum, was a Norman dwelling house of 'first floor hall-and-solar' type, and a third apartment may have once existed. The house was built c. 1180 of flint with ashlar dressings. The two S. buttresses and the string courses are original, but not the gables. Only the S. and W. walls are entirely Norman, the rest are Tudor or of the 19th c. The E. wall was rebuilt when the road was widened. A drastic restoration took place in 1858, and the pseudo-Norman ground floor windows were then inserted. Moyse's Hall is said to have been a Jew's House or Hall or a Synagogue, but more probably it was connected with St. Edmunds Abbey to house scholars and sometimes used as a hostelry for pilgrims, (S4-S6)

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2003 (S6).

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2001 (S7).