Farmstead record WBY 033 - Farmstead: Chestnut Lodge

Grade-II* listed late-16th/early-17th century timber-framed mid-status farmhouse. The earliest part of the house is aligned on an east-west axis and contains the present hall and kitchen. Dating from around 1575 it would have formed a typical mid-status farmhouse, with a central hall flanked by a chimney and parlour on the west and a cross-passage and twin storage rooms on the east. The parlour may have been retained from an older house on the site, but was demolished within a decade or two and replaced by the present rear parlour which at more than 18 feet by 18 reflects the Elizabethan fashion for spacious rooms to accommodate the new ‘posted’ beds and furniture of the period. Both the hall and rear parlour contain queen-post roof structures of a kind found only in northern Suffolk and Norfolk. The front half of the parlour cross-wing, with its fine crow-stepped gable and steeply pedimented windows, is an addition of around 1600 that completed the transformation of the building into a house fit for the most ostentatious yeoman farmer. The new front parlour was provided with an impressive tier of glazed tripartite windows beneath the roof dormer of its western elevation, and probably with decorative plaster ceilings of the most up-to-date kind. At the same time matching new windows were inserted into the older hall and parlour ranges, a new chimney was built against the latter’s western wall, and the original chimney rebuilt in its present form to include an impressive mock stone fireplace in the hall chamber. With the exception of minor additions to the eastern service gable the external profile of the house has not changed in approximately four centuries, and it represents an impressive and historic survival (S1).

Chestnut Lodge, Wilby. 19th century farmstead and 16th century farmhouse. Loose courtyard thre-sided plan formed by working agricultural buildings, with additional detached elements. The farmhouse is set away from the yard. Significant loss (over 50%) of the traditional farm buildings. Located within a loose farmstead cluster (S1-6).

Recorded as part of the Farmsteads in the Suffolk Countryside Project. This is a purely desk-based study and no site visits were undertaken. These records are not intended to be a definitive assessment of these buildings. Dating reflects their presence at a point in time on historic maps and there is potential for earlier origins to buildings and farmsteads. This project highlights a potential need for a more in depth field study of farmstead to gather more specific age data.