Building record SAL 041 - Ubbeston Hall

Grade II listed building. House, formerly manor house. A mid or late C15 3-cell open hall house with a mid C16 extension at the north service end. 2 storeys. Timber-framed and plastered with good early C18 cable-pattern pargetting in panels with ribbed borders; over the entrance is a panel with the raised plaster date 1721 over initials RG.; now fixed to the bakehouse chimney is a triangular panel with raised plaster motifs, removed from the external gable. Thatched roof with axial and gable C17/C18 chimneys of red brick. One C20 eyebrow dormer. Mainly C19 small-pane casements. Battened and boarded arched C20 entrance door at cross-entry position, with open thatched gabled porch on posts. An open hall of 2 bays: the open truss has a cambered tie-beam with wide arch braces and an octagonal crownpost with moulded capital and base, and 4-way plank braces. Both end walls have tension-braced close-studding. Complete smoke-encrusted roof, with original plaster between rafters. Twin service doorways with chamfered 4-centred arches. The service cell has an additional bay, giving in total, 4 small service rooms. Both end cells have unchamfered joists, and gabled crownpost roofs. A chimney was inserted, backing on to the cross-passage, in c.1600 and an upper floor placed over the hall, with ovolo- moulded beams. A cross-wing was added in C16, containing a probable dairy with cheese room over, and a 2-bay bakehouse. The latter is open to the roof (of wind-braced clasped-purlin form); one of the cross-entry doorways survives, with a 4-centred arched head. An internal end fireplace with later bread oven (S1).

2017 Eavesdropper Newsletter: Ubbeston Manor is a timber framed house, formerly called Church Farmhouse. It is listed as formerly a manor house, but this is unlikely as immediately to the south is the moated manor house, Broughton Hall. Ubbeston Hall was badly damaged by fire in February 2016. It is made up of two separate buildings, both open halls, one a three cell 15th century open hall running north to south with the sevices at th enorth end, with at its north end a second two cell 16th century or early 17th century open hall, probably formerly a kitchen, running west to east, both with tatched roofs. The three cell 15th century open hall was a two bay open hall and at the south end a parlour. The upper south bay of the hall, the parlour and most of the roof was lost in the fire. It had a crownpost roof of which the base of the moulded crownpost over the open truss of the hall survives. This had knee braces to the collar purling and the collar. The building has close studding and is 1 3/4 storeys high with full height stufs in the side walls of the open hall, but with a mid-rail in the service bay walls. The hall has a brick chimney stack backing on to the crosspassage in the 16th century section. Initially the hall must have remained open after the chimney was inserted as the bridging joists for the floor inserted in the hall has an ovolo chamfer on its edges, a form that did not come into common use in East Anglia until the late 16th century. Later a 17th century chimney stack was inserted on the south gable. The service end is of two bays and divided into 4 rooms on the ground floor. The northern service rooms were probably workshops. The two cell 16th century open hall consists of a single two bay service room with a single chamber above the the east and a two bay open hall to the west. At the east end of the hall a two centre arch headed door survives. Pegs in the mid-rail indicate there was a similar door in the south wall, creating a cross passage at the east end of the hall. This building survives largely undamaged by the fire.. It is 1 1/2 storeys high and has a clasped side purlin roof with cranked wind braces which are staggered. The side purling roof was not adopted in East Anglia until the 16th century - this roof is late 16th or early 17th century. Diamond mullion windows in the ground floor service room and the service chamber (S2).