Monument record NKT 005 - Palace House Mansion;The Palace;The Greyhound;United Reform Church

Replacement palace for NKT 004 for Charles II, enlarged and built onto house of Earl of Thomond, and the Greyhound Inn next door, which were purchased by Charles II in 1668. Architect for extension, William Samwell. According to Count of Tuscany in 1669 `does not deserve to be called a king's residence' and a description of 1670 by John Evelyn also records its lack of grandeur. Details in (S1).
Rented to Duke of Somerset & Duke of Rutland in C18 and sold in 1819 when most pulled down except 2 lower storeys of SW block (now part of `Palace House Mansion')(S1).
2001: for 2 small excavations within area see (S3). HER mapping after (S2)(S3, fig 2).
For associated ice-house see NKT 016
A small excavation in advance of construction work, in connection with the restoration of Charles II's palace, identified the remains of a late-medieval timber-framed house, apparently destroyed by fire in the 16th or 17th century, prior to the construction of the palace in the 1680s. See S5.
2001: English salt glazed tankard, dated 1756, incised M-Dibble/Newmarket, details in (S6).
1996: Two monitoring visits identified an outside wall in shallow footings on the north wall of the north east room. In two engineering holes in the south east basement room, wall footings were identities stepped into the room, with no natural was observed. In the second hole at 2.01m above the wall footing a 62cm horizontal width of wall face was seen where 2cm have been cut off the face of the bricks. This continued on all the walls with varied width, possible for panelling (S7,S8).

1994: An Evaluation identified 17th century wall remains in two trenches with evidence for structural detail in the form of plaster and door sills. 2 long trenches in the main garden revealed a 17th century drain and garden soil, and earlier pre 17th century layers and features. The interior trenches demonstrated that the Victorian floor levels were raised above those of the 17th century and the plaster stripping established the existence of a surviving 17th century wall in the 19th century phase of construction (S9).

1996: Following the initial archaeological work involved the excavation of evaluation trenches within the Palace House Mansion and Gardens. The first area was on the north side of the surviving portion of the palace. The excavation revealed a series of brick culverts associated with the palace and the remains of two, or possibly three, late medieval/post medieval buildings, one of which appeared to have been destroyed by fire. A second area, in the former front garden of Palace House Mansion, revealed further brick culverts, of which there were at least two phases and a post medieval kiln or oven. Two small areas of palace foundation were also recorded (S10).

Additional imformation on the Palace house stables in (S11).

An evaluation was carried out by Channel 4’s ‘Time Team’ on the site of the royal palace and what are believed to have been his racing stables. The current Palace House Mansion and entrance steps are Grade II* listed and the Palace House Stables are Grade II. The Palace was thought to have been constructed in 1671 by Charles II, although the royal connection with the town dates back to the time of James I, who appears to have built a palace in 1608 within the near vicinity, the exact location of which is now lost, and a second residence in 1614. Previous archaeological work on the site had found brick culverts associated with Palace House and at least two or three late medieval or post-medieval buildings.
The ‘Time Team’ evaluation, comprising four trenches, found evidence of at least two phases of stables associated with Charles II’s palace. The main trench was targeted on the stable block. Here, the earliest construction phase largely conformed to a map of the stables dating to the 1740s, and included part of the external, front wall (SW) facing the stable yard, the central NW–SE wall which divided the stable block in two and which formed the facing for the individual stalls in both blocks, the entrance corridor and stairwell to the upper floor. The stable walls were clunch-built, and the external wall had a red brick facade. The floors were also of red brick. Not shown on the 1740s map, however, was an additional wall foundation, clunch-built and fairly substantial, running parallel to the entrance corridor, within the building. This wall never seems to have progressed beyond foundation level and seems to have been abandoned before the building was completed. The stables were later internally renovated with the addition of another internal clunch wall, and a resurfacing of the stable floor in yellow brick; this renovation phase possibly took place sometime in the 19th century.
The Public Health Map of 1850 confirms the presence of the stable blocks at that date, but by the time of the 1886 Ordnance Survey map the stable block had been replaced by a trainers’ house, a date confirmed by the presence of a fireplace on the first floor of the building which is a Thomas Jekyll design produced by Barnard, Bishop and Barnard of Norwich c.1870. A number of upstanding remains of the stables were integrated into the later house, although most have since been covered up by later renovations. Large parts of the northern wall of the stable block, for example, were incorporated into the central spine wall of the later house.
Three other trenches were sited across the Palace House complex, although only one of these revealed archaeological deposits. In this trench, located within the east wing of the Palace, were found two, possibly three brick walls. This area is marked on a map of the Palace in 1816 as the kitchen, and the 1816 room layout conforms to that on the 1740s map. No dating evidence was, however, recovered. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2011 (S12).