Building record WFG 061 - White Hall

White Hall adjoins open countryside at the southern edge of the modern conurbation of Great Waldingfield. In 1929 it was the farmhouse of a substantial arable holding of 298 acres, and a Victorian ‘model’ farm complex of circa 1870 lies immediately to the east, but the land is now in separate ownership. The building is a largely intact timber-framed structure of five bays which dates from circa 1600 and extends to an impressive 16.75 m in length by 6.25 m in width (55 ft by 20.5 ft). These proportions compare favourably with contemporary Yeoman farmhouses in the area, but until its demolition by a previous owner in the late-20th century the building possessed an additional bay of 6.25 m towards the road on the west which boasted one of the finest star-topped Tudor chimneys in Suffolk. This chimney was admired by Pevsner as the best feature of the parish apart from its medieval church and appeared on the Ordnance Survey of 1971 but is now sadly lacking. Despite its loss the remaining structure still reflects the standard domestic layout of its period with what appears to be a two-bay hall flanked on the west by a pair of in-line service rooms and on the east by the bay of another large chimney with a rebuilt parlour beyond. The framing is of high quality, with closely spaced studs, moulded window sills and double ogee-mouldings to the jowls of the hall chamber. The interior has escaped the usual 20th century restoration and most of the historic fabric is still hidden by later plaster and boxing, which means that further original decoration such as moulded window mullions and wall painting is likely to survive beneath. The intact clasped-purlin roof is unusual for its period in lacking wind-braces and contains a doorway surrounded by apotropaic taper burns.

Despite the surviving structure’s resemblance to a complete domestic house, a number of anomalies combine with the superfluous demolished bay to indicate it was built instead as a rare ‘unit house’ behind the parlour of a cross-wing house facing the road. The property is depicted in a stylised form on a 1597 map of Chilton Manor, but is clearly shown on early-19th century maps as a very large courtyard house with additional ranges to the north and east. The exceptional quality of the demolished chimney suggests it was an important gentry house that may have been linked to the Elizabethan brick mansion at Chilton Hall which it faces across the site of an enclosed Tudor park. Unit houses were designed to accommodate semi-independent family members such as widows or siblings, and illustrate the sophisticated nature of high-status late-16th and 17th century dwellings (S1).