Building record BSM 099 - The Old Bakery, The Croft

The Old Bakery is a substantial and historically important grade II*-listed timber-framed medieval cross-wing house. It contains a number of impressive features including a fine roll-moulded Tudor ceiling and rare notched-lap joints that indicate an origin no later than the very beginning of the 14th century, making it the one of the oldest houses in the area. The building reflects the standard layout of the Middle Ages, with a central open hall flanked on the left and right by service and parlour cross-wings respectively, both of which retain their jettied upper gables. A rare three-bay bake-house with a separate open hall was added behind the service wing in the 15th century. Despite its regular layout the building evolved in an unusually complicated manner, with each of its principal structures dating from different periods. The narrow service wing retains part of a ‘durn’ door with a two-centred arch of the early-14th century, along with widely spaced studs and individually drilled holes for its wattle-and-daub, but was re-roofed and probably largely rebuilt early in the 17th century. The roof and main walls of the hall were also rebuilt in the 17th century but the high-end wall adjoining the original parlour preserves a fine 15th century doorway and incorporates a tie-beam with two notched-lap joints that is almost certainly contemporary with the service wing. The exceptionally wide parlour cross-wing of 20.5 feet replaced the medieval parlour in the second quarter of the 16th century and boasts an almost intact moulded ceiling reflecting Bures’ heyday as a wealthy cloth-manufacturing town. This parlour was originally heated by a large chimney against its back wall, and served by a projecting rear garderobe, but the former was demolished in the late-16th or early-17th century and replaced by the impressive existing fireplace in what remained of the old parlour adjoining the hall (S1).