Building record LXD 091 - Guildhall, Laxfield

Grade II* Listed building: Former guildhall, the upper floor now used as a museum. Circa 1520, with later alterations. Restored 1965-9. Timber framed; the facade has fine exposed close studding with herringbone brick nogging; the remainder is plastered, the main components of the frame also being exposed at the rear. Plaintiled roof. 2 storeys and attic. The first floor is jettied along the facade and left gable end, carried on plain brackets and buttress shafts. The bressumer has embattled decoration. 6 windows, mid C20 square-leaded casements. 2 mid C20 plank entrance doors with studded cover battens. The right hand doorway has a gabled hood. Both doorways are reached by short flights of steps. 2 internal stacks, the main one with a sunk panel in the base. The structure is in 6 bays, although it is probable that a further bay to the west has been lost. The 4 eastern bays on the ground floor formed one large room, entered at its west end where the blocked front doorway can still be seen. There is evidence for a projecting window to this room. On the upper floor the 5 eastern bays originally formed a single room. Heavy plain ground floor joists. Arched-braced and slightly cambered tie beams. Queen- post roof. Main stack and newel stairs inserted c.1600; attic floor is later C17 (S1).

2015 Eavesdropper Newsletter: The religious Guild of St Mary had built its own chapel by 1480, though no traces of it remain today. By around 1520 it had built the Guildhall. The structure of the surviving building is consistent with an early 16th century date. The Guildhall is timber framed with 5 bays, jettied along both its north front and east gable, with the front facing across the street towards the church. This front has exposed close studding with herringbone brick noggin, and originally the east gable was the same, though now plastered over externally. The rear wall is constructed with more widely spaced studding and today is plastered externally with on the main posts and horizontal rails exposed. Most of the original timber frame survives, apart from the windows which have all been replaced and have 20th century glazed windows. The building has sunk slightly at the west end; the jetty at the west end is 8 inches lower than at the central truss causing the original first floor to slope down to the west in the three western bays. AS a result the first floor in these bays has been relaid and levelled out. The roof over the western bay has substantial repairs, but appears to retain most of its original rafters. The western chimney stack was inserted in the 16th century and another in the 18th century. Laxfield Guildhall has an East Anglian queen post roof (S2)