Description

TM 0954
3/103
9.12.55

NEEDHAM MARKET
HIGH STREET (EAST)
Nos. 2 and 4

II

Bank and offices. Built mid C17 as a free school under the terms of the Will
of Sir Francis Theobald, Lord of the Manor of Barking and Needham Market (died
1632). He directed that the Guildhall at Barking be "pulled down and carried
to Needham and set up.....". However, his instructions are known not to have
been carried out for several decades. 3-cell lobby-entrance plan; alterations
of late C19. 2 storeys and attics. Timber-framed and roughcast; some areas
of framing are exposed and painted. Plaintiled roofs with axial chimneys of
red brick, and pierced and undulating bargeboards with spike finials. C19
gabled dormers with cusped bargeboards and casements. Late C19 mullioned and
transomed windows with casements and leaded lights; a large flat-roofed
segmental bay to left. 2-storey gabled entrance porch with C19/C20 arched oak
framed and boarded door. Many timber-framing members are exposed internally
or externally, and are certainly reused from a late C15 or early C16 building,
whose hall was probably on the upper floor and of 3 bays. There is also
evidence for a closed truss with a further cell beyond. The floor joists and
all main components are heavy and unmoulded, typical for a rural guildhall of
c.1500. The mid C17 rebuilding is of domestic 3-cell form, with massive axial
chimney, chamfered joists of smaller section in the parlour cell, and butt-
purlin roof. A rear wing of 2 storeys may be C17 and remodelled, or possibly
added c.1900. A History of Needham Market: H. Paget, C.B.E., 1984.

Listing NGR: TM0902754781

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26545746

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)