Building record BRK 167 - Late 15th/early 16th century detached kitchen or bakehouse, Clay Hall

At first sight the building appears typical of the many small 16th and 17th century timber-framed farmhouses which survive across Suffolk, albeit in an unusual state of preservation having escaped recent modernisation and extension. It reflects the ubiquitous domestic room plan of the period, with a central hall flanked by a pair of service rooms on the north and a brick chimney heating both the hall and a parlour to the south. However, the house never possessed an open truss and on closer inspection reveals a far more complex and historically interesting process of evolution. It was built in the late-15th or early-16th century as a rare ‘two-cell’ structure of just 29.5 feet in length with a cross-passage, a single service room and a floored hall heated by a large external chimney against its gable. Although small, its frame was of high quality and almost certainly represents a rare detached kitchen or bake-house belonging to a larger farmhouse to the rear that had disappeared by the 19th century. A new bay containing a pair of service rooms replaced the gable chimney in the early part of the 17th century, and part of the hall ceiling was removed to accommodate the open furnace of a brewing vat that heavily sooted both the remaining joists and the timbers of the upper storey. This was in turn replaced by the present brick chimney with back-to-back fireplaces which obstructs the original cross-passage and retains a 19th century copper and bread oven. The historic importance of the building lies in its fine and largely intact timber frame, retaining both arched door heads to the cross-passage; its identification as a rare detached bake-house and the subtle evidence of its numerous alterations over the centuries – including its sub-division into cottages (S1).