Farmstead record FRT 062 - Farmstead: Bond Hall

Bond Hall is a farmstead visible on the 1st Ed Os map. The farmstead is laid out in a regular U-plan with additional detached elements. The farmhouse is detached and set away from the yard. The farmstead sits alongside a public road in an isolated location. This farmstead survives intact with additional modern sheds on site. (S2-5)

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.

Bond Hall occupies the site of a medieval manor held by Nicholas Bonde at the beginning of the 14th century, but the present house appears to have operated as a large tenanted farm since its construction at the end of the 16th century. The present house is a complete Elizabethan timber-framed structure that respects the standard three-cell layout of its period and preserves an exceptional number of historic features - including no fewer than four rooms with roll-moulded ceilings and early fireplaces. The ground and first-floor oriel windows in the approximate centre of the jettied facade were among the most impressive in the area, with a moulded brick base to the lower and a rare coved plaster sill to the upper – both of which remain intact. The building also contains a number of original roll-moulded window mullions and one internal jamb in the service chamber is completely covered with carved verses from the King James Bible. Religious texts are known to have been pasted to chimney lintels elsewhere in Suffolk to protect against the entry of evil spirits but this painstakingly incised version has no known parallel. Apart from a small porch and an unusual lean-to brick dairy and bake-house added to the front of the service bay in the 19th century the house retains its original proportions, although the rebuilding of the back wall in brick at the same time hints at the presence of an earlier rear addition (S1)

Archaeological monitoring during the groundworks associated with an extension and renovation works to Bond Hall revealed no archaeological finds, features or any architectural features of merit (S6).