Building record SAL 035 - 'Goldings', formerly Golding's Farm, Stonham Aspal

2014: Historic Building Record and Monitoring of a fire-damaged wing of 'Goldings', formerly Golding's Farm, in Stonham Aspal, before it was replaced with a slightly larger range on a similar footprint.

The timber-framed and rendered building was constructed in three phases and its final form reflected the standard layout of many East Anglian farmhouses of the 17th century with a central two-bay hall flanked by a parlour on the south and a service bay to the north. A 'high-end' chimney with back to back fireplaces divided the hall and parlour to heat both rooms. In the original structure, however, the central hall was designed as a free-standing building open to the (now missing) roof in the style of a medieval open hall. This small structure was almost certainly built in the early part of the 16th century as a detached bake-house rather than a domestic house in its own right, and it represented a rare survival.

Following demolition, a shallow footing of the original 16th century chimney was the only part of the former building that could be detected below ground. The building remains were observed at a high level in the soil profile, and above the depth at which most archaeological excavations normally occur and demonstrated why such building are rarely recognised on what are otherwise known rural medieval occupation sites.

A copper alloy liard, a small denomination French coin of Louis XIV (1643-1715) was recovered from below the foundations of the 17th century fireplace, and was thought to be a votive or commemorative momento placed there by the fireplace builders to register their position in history. The coin dates to c.AD 1650-1699, was minded in Partis and was worth three deniers (S1).

Goldings lies in open countryside approximately 1.2 km east of Stonham Aspal parish church, close to the hamlet of East End. The timber-framed and rendered property was extensively renovated and extended in the 1980s, disguising much of its historic fabric and character, and was accordingly omitted from the Schedule of Listed Buildings. Fire damage to its thatched roof in January 2012 resulted in a grant of planning consent for demoliton despite the substantial survival of its historic fabric.
The survey of Stonham Aspal’s houses by Penrose and Hill notes that ‘Goldings, a small medieval house, has documents which seem to relate to it from the start of the 16th century’, but gives no other details (Suffolk Review Vol. 4 no. 1, Autumn 1971). The map of the parish which accompanies this survey is based on early records and shows the approach road which now terminates at the property continuing north to other tenements and returning westwards to the church. At the time of the tithe survey in 1839 Goldings was a small tenanted farm of 26.5 acres (7 of which were pasture and the rest arable), owned by Thomas Buttram and occupied by Mark Moyse.
The timber-framed structure was aligned on an approximately north-south axis and extended to a total of 14.2 m in length by an unusually narrow 4.1 m in width (46.5 ft by 13.25 ft), with walls that rose to 2.8 m at their roof-plates (9.25 ft). It was built in three phases and its final form reflected the standard layout of many East Anglian farmhouses with a central two-bay hall flanked by a parlour on the south and a service bay to the north. A ‘high-end’ chimney with back-to back fireplaces divided the hall and parlour to heat both rooms. The original structure, however, differed significantly from the norm and was of considerable historic interest. The central hall was designed as a free-standing building of 6.4m in length (21 ft) consisting of two unequal bays that were open to the (now missing) roof with an arch-braced open truss inthe style of a medieval open hall. The northern bay was 2.6 m long between its wall posts (8.5 ft) and the southern 3.4 m (11 ft). In other respects, however, it differed dramatically from a medieval hall: it lacked a cross-passage (as the usual positions of the opposing doors were obstructed by low internally trenched wall braces rising from the corner posts to the roofplates), along with hall windows and any evidence of sooting. The roof-plates continued by 1.2m (4ft) beyond the southern gable but lacked studwork of any kind and were evidently designed to carry the roof over a large chimney that adjoined thes outhern gable. This is confirmed by the lack of framing evidence in the extant southern corner posts, in contrast to the northern posts where mortises for wall braces could be seen. Despite the presence of mortises for large tie-beam braces in the storey posts of the open truss, and the lack of a ceiling, the rear (western) wall contained a high window of 1.2m in length (4ft) and just 48cms in depth (19ins) below its roof-plate that retained four original diamond mullions and a rebate for an internally sliding shutter. There was no window on the ground floor beneath and no first-floor window in the eastern wall. Losses to the original fabric made it impossible to identify the positions of any other ground floor windows or doors. This small structure was almost certainly built in the early part of the 16th century as a detached bake-house rather than a domestic house in its own right, and represented a rare survival. Bake-houses performed many functions in addition to baking, including brewing, washing, the slaughtering animals and the heating of water. High windows are a recognised feature of such buildings as they lit platforms extending along the walls (S2).