Hadleigh`s Benton Street - Listed Buildings

The houses in Benton Street vary considerably in size, from the properties listed first in this post, (number 37 to 41) to the grand ones like the Old Manse further down the road and also Benton End House. Still a beautiful street, despite the modern curse of traffic which is reaching a point where something will need to be done to alleviate the problem. There are a few closed pubs in the street, the ones not shown here are the Black Swan at number 4 and the Falcon at number 63, as neither are listed buildings. So, onto a few of the listed buildings.

Numbers 37 to 41, are probably of C17 origin, classed as a `range of tenements` over two storeys with an attic. It`s the usual timber-framed and plastered building, and is listed as having a `Central ground floor entry with double doors` but now has more doors added, it appears. Probably when the house was divided up into the three properties which it now appears to be.

The Old Manse at number 90 Benton Street is an C18 building over two storeys. It`s in red brick with an attic, which has three dormers. It has a three window range, which are flush-frame sash with glazing bars. Apparently, it also has small wood modillion eaves cornice and an open pediment hood to the Doric doorcase, none of which can be seen from the road as the high wall and gate preclude that. Not only is the main building listed, but also the outbuilding to the right of the picture and the surrounding wall. Lucky Pastor, I say!

Numbers 73 and 75 are probably C16 but the exterior features are probably a good deal altered, although it is possible that they have interior interest. It is a two storey timber framed building with plastered filling in the walls and tiled roofs. The upper storey projects on the west front at two slightly different levels on curved brackets, with exposed joists. 

Numbers 124 and 126 - probably C17, but now much altered. It`s a two storey timber framed and plastered building, with the roofs tiled. There is a gable end to the street. The upper storey projects on the east side on three curved brackets, as it did formerly on south front. No 124 has a lean-to addition on the north side. The ground floor front plaster has traces of guilloche pargetting.

Another property which is dated from C16 but with external features largely C17/18. Most of the house is late C17 with C18 re-fronting. It has two wings at the back extending east. The front breaks forward slightly at each end with rather attractive cornice. It has a dentil pediment doorcase with scroll consoles. The north side of  the north-east wing has a late C17 window of three lights with an arched central light and leaded panes, unfortunately you cannot see it from the road! There are several interior features including a late C17 staircase. At the north end front, there is a rebuilt chimney stack with inset panel marked DW 1765.

Another lovely looking building at 86 Benton Street and one which I can find limited information. The date panel on the front says 1714. It`s a two storey, timber framed and plastered building with a tiled roof. The ground floor has been considerably altered and it has modern windows. However, it`s one of my favourites in the road.

The Kings Arms (once known to locals as the `Monkey`) is now residential, but once was a Pub which closed in 1993. It is of C16 and C17 construction but considerably restored. It`s a two storey timber framed and plastered building with roofs tiled. It has cross wings north and south. The upper storey of the north cross wing projects on curved brackets with remains of moulded capitals and shafts. The upper storey of the main block projects in a similar way. There are two small gables on the main block. The ground floor has been much altered and has modern windows (old style) which are fitted with diamond panes. All the walls are covered with light washed pebble-dash.

Almost opposite the Kings Arms is The Flying Chariot

Known as "The Flying Chariot" this building was formerly an Inn, and is situated at 92 Benton Street. It is of Cl6 origin but with largely C17 features, especially on the front which has elaborate ornamental detail. 

It is of L-shaped, two storey timber-framed and plastered construction with roofs tiled. The front and part of the south side have remains of extensive floral pargetting. There is elaborate carved wood detail on the whole of the front and the barge boards on north side. (See above picture)

The eaves board is carved and has the date 1656 over the North oriel window. It has a three window range, all oriel windows and supported by three brackets. They are all, except one, carved with the head of a man, said to be Charles I. See image below.

The eaves board is supported by six similar brackets. The oriel windows are of five lights with transoms and many of the leaded casements are original. The ground floor has one doorway with heavy carved pediment supported by brackets carved as lions. The door has six panels. Large rectangular chimney stack south part of front block, and at the back a two storey oriel window projecting from ground level. There is some good interior detail, including some painting, which I would love to see.

One of the Oriel windows 

Haven Alms-houses - numbers 110 to 118 are of C17 construction, probably built by, or as a legacy of John Raven, circa 1636 (which was the year of his death). Born in Hadleigh, he went to Cambridge University and eventually qualified as a medical physician (MD) (Physician to Anne of Denmark)

The main block is of one storey, with a cross wing at the north end which is of two storeys. The building is timber-framed and plastered, with roofs tiled. The cross wing has a projecting upper storey on the front and some of the timber framing is exposed on part of the main block and cross wing. Doors are approached by small steps with handrail.

Numbers 130 to 134 are a group of C17/C18 cottages with modern additions both at the north west and south east ends. It is a two storey timber framed and plastered building, with the roofs tiled. It has mostly casement windows. Otherwise, no particular external features.

Benton End House is probably C16 and later, and the Architect is said to be Sir Peter Cheyney. Benton End House has a rich artistic and horticultural history. The artist, art teacher and plantsman, Sir Cedric Morris, bought the house from Sir Alfred Sainsbury in 1939 and opened The East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing.

Students at the school lived and studied at Benton End House, which is how Lucien Freud came to live here for a period of time in 1940. Lucien was a student of Morris’, and was painted by him in the first floor studio here, which is now the master bedroom.

Maggi Hambling is also known to have studied here, and she worked in the kitchen during her school holidays. I can think of worse places to work.

The house itself is C16 and later, of two storeys and attics, timber framed and plastered, with a tiled roof. Front wings extend north and south, and a wing at the back extends east. The front has been largely altered and includes C18 features. There are 3 gabled attic dormers. 

The upper storey projects and there is a large, shouldered chimney at either end. The central doorcase has flat hood on scroll brackets. At the north end of the front is an octagonal brick pier with pointed cap. The east wing has a brick gable with octagonal flank piers, coping and a chimney stack with two octagonal shafts (moulded bases). 

Altogether, a beautiful road which I never tire of walking along. As I said earlier, modern day traffic is in danger of ruining it for residents, and those walking through.

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Hadleigh Guildhall and St Mary Church with Deanery Tower

If you are ever visiting Hadleigh in Suffolk, then a visit to the beautiful complex consisting of the Guildhall, St Mary`s Church, and Archdeacon`s Gatehouse, is a must.  While most of the buildings which are Listed in Hadleigh are Grade 2, this group of buildings are all Group 1 - except the wall, which is Grade 2.

The buildings known locally as the Guildhall are made up of three buildings. The Market House, The Guilds Halls and The New Town Hall (Grand Hall) are situated on land that belonged originally to the Manor of Toppesfield Hall. 

Some History:

In 1252 Henry III granted to Gilbert de Kirkeby, Lauretta his wife and their heirs: a weekly market and an annual fair. By 1438 the Lord of the Manor was William de Clopton; he granted these rights including the rights to the Market House to 15 Hadleigh Trustees, initially for a payment of 6s 8d. (34p) a year, the Hadleigh Market Feoffment was formed to manage the market and buildings. Later the Guilds Halls were built and finally the New Town Hall.

The Feoffment has managed the buildings for the people of Hadleigh since 1438, the Feoffment now being the Hadleigh Town Council. Quite early in the life of the Feoffment the payment changed to a peppercorn rent of a single red rose. This payment was resurrected in the later part of the 20th Century and a red rose is laid annually on the Clopton tomb in Long Melford Church.

The buildings lie to the south of the Churchyard through to the Market Place. The oldest part of the complex is the Market House. This building fronts the Churchyard. Abutting the Market House to the west was the 'Long Hall newly built' (1438). The long hall appears to have been the home of the Grammar School, the earliest record of which is dated 7th May 1382.  As with all the rooms in the complex over the years it had multiple uses - It's last use being as Almshouses and accommodation for the Dean's servants; but it was seriously damaged in a storm in 1884 and demolished.

The original Market house was rebuilt in the mid 1400's and much of it remains to-day. It was a very prestigious timber framed building, three stories in height with oriel windows and carved exterior woodwork. At some time in the 16th century a large chimney stack was erected through the middle of the building and at the end of the 18th century part of the third storey was removed, a small extension built and an assembly room was formed with a new staircase.

Around the 1450's massive alterations were being made to the Church and the Hadleigh Guilds purchased a piece of land behind the Market House to build their own Guilds Halls having previously met in the church. These new Guilds Halls were not attached to the Market House and were built over two floors plus a semi-basement/cellar, the buildings being longer than we see to-day. There appear to have been two rooms downstairs, possibly with a central staircase.

The Guilds Halls and their contents were seized by the Crown at the Reformation and the Halls sold into private ownership. They were purchased by several of the town's citizens in 1573 at a cost of 100 marks (£66/6s/6d or £66-32½p).

At around this time the Guilds Halls were joined to the Market House. The upper storey of the Guilds Halls roof (now known as the Old Town Hall) appears to have been replaced with a fine crown post roof. By the 19th century the towns’ folk decided they needed a larger public hall and in 1851 they took down part of the Guilds Halls to build the New Town Hall with a Police Station beneath it. The police station, complete with cells, was never used, becoming offices for a local solicitor.

Throughout the years the building has had multiple uses, and the names that the rooms are known by today are not necessarily the original names but reflect some of their uses. The Market House probably housed the wool hall, where all cloth had to be brought for taxation purposes and for sale. 

For much of its life it has been the centre for the administration of the town. Rooms in that part of the building have also been used for the fire station, the almonry for the Suffolk Yeomanry, storerooms and today houses the Town Council, the rent from which provides a large part of the income required to maintain the property. The Assembly Room also once housed a National School for Infants.

Part of the Guild Rooms were used for many years for a workhouse, prison and in the early 20^th Century a Corset Factory, in reality used for any purpose that provided an income. The early days would have seen the grand feasts and pageantry of the mediaeval guilds, the Feoffment annual feasts and the poverty of the House of Correction (Workhouse). The Assembly rooms and New Town Hall saw the Grand Georgian and Victorian Balls, Bazaars and Concerts; today they are available for weddings, parties, meetings, exhibitions, concerts, conferences and theatre productions.

The Market House and Guilds Halls are listed Grade One (Star) buildings and the Victorian new Town Hall is a Grade Two. Their position adjacent to the Church and Deanery Tower provide a delightful and probably unique setting of three mediaeval buildings built within the same century but of totally different construction. 

The Tudor screen with the doorway is not part of this building but has been rescued from another building in Hadleigh - presumably the better to preserve it.

A detached kitchen was built in the garden of 'Long Hall newly built' (1438), the remains of which are still to be seen at the west side of today’s garden. 

A milestone in the grounds of the Guildhall. From the www.milestonesociety.co.uk came this information: 

Our South Suffolk Rep says: 

The Hadleigh obelisk probably dates to the 18th C. It was restored c.1892. Possibly the letters in the plinth were leaded at that time. All of the leading, save for the B in BURY, has either fallen or been picked out. Miles to London in Arabic numerals but all other destinations (Lavenham, Bury [St Edmunds], Ipswich and Colchester) are in Roman numerals 

An assumption... That the obelisk top at the Guildhall most likely the old one removed during the 1892 restoration. The current top appears to have had restorative work carried out in recent times. 

Opposite the Guildhall complex is St Mary`s Church. St Marys is one of the grand Suffolk churches, the only big one with a medieval spire; indeed, the only proper wood and lead spire in the county. It was built in the 14th century and is one of the longest churches in Suffolk. The church has a late 13th-century or early 14th-century tower and 14th-century aisles. The church was almost wholly reworked in the 15th century, when the arcades were rebuilt, and the clerestory, south porch and northeast vestry added. At this time also the whole building, except for the tower, was re-fenestrated. In the 19th century and early 20th century the church was extensively restored. 

The church is constructed of flint rubble with stone dressings and has leaded roofs and spire. It has an aisled nave and chancel, a western tower, a two-storey south porch and a north vestry. On 26 April 1950 the church was designated a Grade I listed building by English Heritage

The exterior bell, a 1280 clock bell doubling as a sanctus bell, is Suffolk's oldest. 

Originally, a Sanctus bell was rung at the consecration during Mass. In medieval practice, it was probably one of the bells in the tower, rung by an observer on the ringing platform - hence, the sanctus bell window in the west wall of many naves. Sometimes, the replacement of a roof in the 19th century has meant this being left above the roof line, exposed to the open air - which is how the bell here in Hadleigh is situated, only now it rings with the clock. 

It called the attention of people at work in the fields or town to what was happening, enabling them to stop and pray for a moment. How the Church controlled the lives of folk in medieval times! And no, the ladder is not there for the bell ringer! 

The magnificent south doorway retains its original 15th century doors. 

The Chancel door 

The curious bench end near the altar of a wolf carrying the head of St Edmund, martyred king of the East Angles. 

An explanation. 

Painting by Maggie Hambling, hanging in St Mary`s in Hadleigh. Painted in 1986. 

Hambling was born in Sudbury, Gainsborough's home-town, in 1945, and spent her childhood in Hadleigh, in Constable country. Her Head of Christ (1986) now hangs in Hadleigh church. While still at school, she took her paintings to the nearby 'Artists' House', home of Cedric Morris and Lett Haines. Soon she became one of their pupils. Haines, in particular, taught her to have confidence in her own imagination. Later, she continued her studies at Camberwell, under Robert Medley, and, for a short time in the 1960s, her figures resembled his fractured forms. Although Medley's stylistic influences were later much less apparent, he - like Haines - exerted a more general effect on her development as an artist.

To the south west of the church stands the famous Hadleigh Deanery Towers which Archbishop William Pykenham built for himself in 1495, although the actual medieval Deanery is now demolished. It is a very fine example of late C15 brickwork, and was originally the gatehouse to the Archdeacon's house (demolished early C19). It is of red brick with black diapering, 43 ft high, 31 ft wide, flanked at the four corners by panelled and embattled turrets. The turrets on the east side are hexagonal and rise from the ground level, the turrets on the west side spring from a little way below the corbel table. The carved and moulded brick chimneys in early C16 style were added in 1830. All the external brick panelling is decorated with trefoil- cusped heads. Over the entrance gateway are two storeys, the first with an oriel window on west side of two lights and surmounted by a brick cornice with trefoil-cusped work. The room has been used as a library and was panelled in 1730 by Dean Wilkins. There is a curious painting on plaster above the fireplace, of the Church with the river and hills beyond, executed by a local artist Benjamin Coleman 1629. There are also two paintings said to be by Canaletto who was a guest of Dean Tanner between 1749 and 1751. A small vaulted oratory with secret chamber is in the south east turret.

The listed wall on the west side of the churchyard, south of the Deanery Tower.

View from the Deanery tower. 

It was at this Deanery gateway (probably in the above pictured room) in July 1833 that the meeting was held that gave birth to the Oxford Movement, which went on to change the face of Anglican churches forever. It is no exaggeration to say that the modern Church of England was born in this building. 

The Oxford movement, 19th-century movement centred at the University of Oxford that sought a renewal of “catholic,” or Roman Catholic, thought and practice within the Church of England in opposition to the Protestant tendencies of the church. The argument was that the Anglican church was by history and identity a truly “catholic” church. An immediate cause of the movement was the change that took place in the relationship between the state and the Church of England from 1828 to 1832. Laws that required members of municipal corporations and government-office holders to receive the Lord’s Supper in the Church of England were repealed, and a law was passed that removed most of the restrictions formerly imposed on Roman Catholics. For a short time it seemed possible that the Church of England might be disestablished and lose its endowments. Consequently, many loyal Anglicans wished to assert that the Church of England was not dependent on the state and that it gained its authority from the fact that it taught Christian truth and its bishops were in the apostolic succession (i.e., able to trace their authority and office back in an unbroken line to the Apostles). The movement rapidly became involved in theological, pastoral, and devotional problems.

Leaders of the movement were John Henry Newman (1801–90), a clergyman and subsequently a convert to Roman Catholicism and a cardinal; Richard Hurrell Froude (1803–36), a clergyman; John Keble (1792–1866), a clergyman and poet; and Edward Pusey (1800–82), a clergyman and professor at Oxford.

The ideas of the movement were published in 90 Tracts for the Times (1833–41), 24 of which were written by Newman, who edited the entire series. Those who supported the Tracts were known as Tractarians who asserted the doctrinal authority of the catholic church to be absolute, and by “catholic” they understood that which was faithful to the teaching of the early and undivided church. They believed the Church of England to be such a catholic church.

Some of the movement’s followers gradually moved closer to the beliefs of the Roman Catholic church, and controversies over the Tractarians’ ideas developed. In 1845 Newman joined the Roman Catholic church, and, subsequently, several others also joined.

Keble and Pusey remained active leaders of the movement, which gradually spread its influence throughout the Church of England. Some of the results were increased use of ceremony and ritual in church worship, the establishment of Anglican monastic communities for men and for women, and better-educated clergy who were more concerned with pastoral care of their church members.

In the north chapel in the Church, there’s a plaque to Dean Hugh Rose who convened the famous Hadleigh Conference in the Deanery Tower that spearheaded the Catholic revival in the Church of England known as the Oxford Movement. 

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