Building record WTN 070 - The Old Sawmill

Until its recent sale The Old Sawmill was owned by the renowned Ipswich-based furniture manufacturers Titchmarsh and Goodwin, and was used to prepare and store their timber. The site lies on the B1077, approximately 150 m north of Witnesham’s Barley Mow Inn, and contains a number of chiefly 20th century workshops and storage sheds. The timber-framed and weatherboarded three-bay shed adjoining the entrance track to the north dates from the late-18th or early-19th century and was the only building shown on the 1902 Ordnance Survey. In 1911 it belonged to the carpenter and builder who lived at the grade II-listed 17th century dwelling now known as Wood House on the opposite side of the track and presumably used it as his mill and workshop. A saw pit was shown alongside on the 1902 map. At the time of the tithe survey in 1840 this house was a pair of tenanted cottages occupied by a family of carpenters and wheelwrights, so the site’s association with woodworking is longstanding. It is therefore tempting to interpret the three-bay shed as a rare Georgian carpenter’s workshop, but its original entrance faced the former paddock on the south and is consistent with the tithe apportionment which suggests it was leased to the tenants of the land rather than the cottages. While an industrial purpose cannot be ruled out entirely, the building is more likely to have been designed as a typical stable and hay loft, with its conversion into a workshop taking place during the second half of the 19th century. It is nonetheless of local historic significance, and retains an impressive and largely intact original ceiling despite numerous alterations and the replacement of its roof. According to a deed reproduced below it was sold away from Wood House in 1942 and so cannot be regarded as part of its curtilage for listing purposes (S1).