Description

WORLINGWORTH
TM 26 NW
5/111 Worlingworth Hall
-
GV II*
Manor house. Late C13 core, with other work of C15, C16, early C17 and C18.
Main range has C19 and C20 additions. A 3-cell main range with 2-cell service
wing to rear, forming L-shape plan. Timber framed and plastered, roof of
glazed black pantiles. 2 storeys, one small attic in main range. 4 windows,
C18 casements without glazing bars, set well below the eaves. Ground floor
has full-width conservatory, added in 1987; within are 3 glazed patio doors of
1987 and a C19 half-glazed door. Internal stack with good original sawtooth
shaft. Gable stack to left, set across the ridge, and a small square stack to
the right gable end, set forward of the ridge. Interior. First floor room to
left of main range contains the remains of the upper bay of an aisled hall.
This is a rare survival of part of a C13 manor house. The arcade posts have
shallow-moulded capitals and were a rounded square in section: this profile is
only found in Suffolk at the aisled hall of similar date at The Woodlands,
Brundish (1½km to the east) and the 2 are almost certainly by the same
carpenter. Straight braces from each arcade post to the arcade plates,
remains of clasping passing braces, one extra tie beam close to the open
truss. A further on-edge tie-beam is probably a later insertion. At the
gable wall, a closed truss originally at the upper end of the hall, with
passing braces rising into the gable. Tie beam braces are crossed by a
further brace notch-lap jointed at the head, forming a pair of saltires. The
arcade posts here had half-capitals, their braces to the arcade plates now
lost. In C15 a raised-aisle open truss was formed by cutting the arcade posts
just below the capitals and supporting them on a fine cambered bridging beam
with massive solid arched braces. There is a triple cavetto moulding on the
beam and a single cavetto on the braces, continued down the buttress-shafted
wallposts. At this time the side walls were rebuilt inside their C13
alignment. C16 stack inserted in lower bay of hall, against the open truss.
2 good open fireplaces on ground floor. C17 inserted floor in left hand room
has axial bridging beam and chamfered joists. Remainder of main range
considerably modernised, with much structure concealed. Roof timbers in attic
concealed, remainder of roof not examined. Service range in 2 C16 phases, the
later cell to rear partly rebuilt c.1980. Both phases have plain joists, set
flat, on the ground floor. Exposed first floor studding. Earlier phase had
plain crown-post roof, the main trusses only intact. Later cell has intact
butt purlin roof with cambered collars.

Listing NGR: TM2359368960

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Worlingworth Hall official website
• Wikidata Q17535342

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)