Building record KSY 037 - Wickerstreet House

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Summary

Circa 1550 house with an unusally complex evolution between the mid 16th and early 17th centuries.

Location

Grid reference Centred TL 9769 4189 (13m by 24m)
Map sheet TL94SE
Civil Parish KERSEY, BABERGH, SUFFOLK

Map

Type and Period (1)

Full Description

2016: Wickerstreet House was known as Hollies Farm until the 1960s and formerly adjoined the western edge of a medieval green which still survives in its front garden. An early photograph shows a rendered façade with sash windows rather than its present exposed framing, which dates from a Mock Tudor refurbishment of the mid-20th century. The house is of special historic interest due to its unusually complex evolution between the mid-16th and early-17th centuries. It neatly illustrates the dramatic change in English housing during this period, and the manner in which a relatively modest Tudor building with a standard three cell layout and a single fireplace could be transformed in one lifetime into a sophisticated Yeoman farmhouse with multiple fireplaces. The 16th century house consisted of a central hall with a pair of storage rooms on the left and a small parlour on the right, all beneath a single roof with hipped gables. Its intact clasped-purlin roof is on the right, all beneath a single roof with hipped gables. Its intact clasped-purlin roof is unusual in its lack of wind bracing. The Tudor chimney adjoined the cross-passage, but was removed at the beginning of the 17th century when a large new stack with back to back fireplaces was inserted at the opposite end of the hall, almost completely filling the original parlour. A new parlour cross-wing was built to replace it with an ovolo-moulded ceiling and a projecting front bay which has since been removed. An additional parlour wing was added to the rear, and a large two-bay extension built against the original left-hand gable effectively doubling the size of the house. The outer bay of the left-hand extension was later demolished and replaced by an external chimney, and in the mid-19th century a two-storied red-brick lean-to was added alongside the rear parlour to form the modern kitchen (S1).

Sources/Archives (1)

  • <S1> Unpublished document: Alston, L.. 2016. Heritage Asset Assessment: Wickerstreet House, Wickerstreet Green, Kersey, Suffolk.

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Protected Status/Designation

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Related Events/Activities (1)

Record last edited

Oct 10 2016 9:49AM

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