Building record SNP 110 - Church Farm

Church Farm is alleged to have been rebuilt in circa 1880 re-using the moulded joists of an older ceiling, but this view is based on the misinterpretation of a Victorian auction advertisement. In fact it is the oldest house in Snape by a margin of at least a century and was omitted in error from the Schedule of Listed Buildings. It preserves what appears to be a large four-bay parlour cross-wing belonging to a high-status early-16th century house that may have consisted at least in part of brick rather than timber-framing. The moulded ceiling of its jettied ‘Reception Hall’ is among the finest in Suffolk and is particularly rare in the relatively impoverished Sandlings, where few medieval or Tudor houses survive relative to other parts of the County. Both this ceiling and that of the two-bay ‘Sitting Room’ immediately behind unquestionably survive in situ, along with moulded wall posts and a brick rear gable containing a 16th or 17th century chimney. Other early fabric is likely to lie hidden behind later plaster in the cross wing and probably elsewhere in the house, quite possibly retaining decorative surfaces such as wall paintings which a house of this quality would almost certainly have possessed. Even the brickwork of the front wall probably pre-dates the supposed rebuilding of 1880 as it contains evidence of a blocked window obstructed by the
late-Victorian roof. The building’s historic significance is considerably enhanced by its close relationship with the parish church, which occupies the opposite corner of a roughly square enclosure containing approximately 6.6 acres. This layout is typical of ancient manorial sites known as hall-and-church complexes which are believed to originate in the late Anglo-Saxon period, and the two structures form a medieval group with the remarkably unaltered Church Common and its round barrows to the south (the barrows being Scheduled Ancient Monuments). Without the manorial quality of Church Farm’s present fabric it would be impossible to recognise this nationally important complex in the absence of moats or waterfilled ditches which are precluded here by the sandy soil (S1).