Building record NYW 110 - Stour House

Stour House has a two-storey main range with an in-line three-cell internal layout that comprises a central hall with a parlour to the left and a service room to the right. The main range was not, however, constructed in a single phase. The standing building includes two structures of sixteenth century date, one of which being the parlour addition at the LH end of the main range. It would appear that the building was L-shaped in plan in the sixteenth century which was common in built-up areas where space was at a premium. The in-line parlour block would have been added to an earlier hall in the mid-sixteenth century. The addition is of timber-frame construction with close-studded walls and a crown-post roof. The parlour was decorated with moulded ceiling joists and there is evidence for a chimney that was positioned against the rear wall of the parlour block. Abutting the hall is an early sixteenth century range which is set at an angle that reflects the constraints of the site at that date. The timberframed range is jettied on its south-west side which would have faced into a yard at the rear of the hall. The ground floor room has moulded ceiling joists and probably served as a parlour to the rear of a hall and service range on the street frontage.

The two sixteenth century structures were retained when the hall was re-constructed in the late seventeenth century. The walls of the new range contained heavy primary bracing and widely-spaced studding, set beneath a side-purlin roof with a single-tier of clasped purlins. The central hall was provided with a service room to the right to form an inline three-cell arrangement onto Court Street. The hall ceiling was constructed with a number of earlier frame components, including a section of a former mid-rail that previously housed the diamond mullions of a ground floor window. A wing was added to the rear of the parlour block in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, and contemporary pargeting survives on the rear wall of the main range at first floor level. The front wall of the parlour block was raised in height to align with the taller hall range and a new roof was formed above the sixteenth century structure re-using rafters from a late medieval roof. The main range was then provided with a brick façade and sash windows in the early nineteenth century.

The main range was extended northwards in the mid-nineteenth century with a two-storey addition on a slightly different alignment. The extension was constructed in brick which was laid in a monk bond in contrast with the Flemish bond of the main façade. The addition appears to have included a large undivided space at ground floor level which was initially open to the street and which extended into a wing at the rear of the front range. The brick section between that wing and the jettied range appears to have been built at an earlier date and the result is a series of gables to the rear of the building. The early nineteenth century work may be attributed to Thomas Marshall who owned four properties on the west side of Court Street (S1).