Bildeston

conservation area appraisal

Introduction

The conservation area in Bildeston was
originally designated by West Suffolk
County Council in 1973, and inherited by
Babergh District Council at its inception
in 1974.

The Council has a duty to review its
conservation area designations from time
to time, and this appraisal examines
Bildeston under a number of different
headings as set out in English Heritage’s
new ‘Guidance on Conservation Area
Appraisals’ (2006).

As such it is a straightforward appraisal
of Bildeston’s built environment in
conservation terms.

As a document it is neither prescriptive
nor overly descriptive, but more a
demonstration of ‘quality of place’,
sufficient for the briefing of the Planning
Officer when assessing proposed works
in the area. The photographs and maps
are thus intended to contribute as much
as the text itself.

As the English Heritage guidelines point
out, the appraisal is to be read as a
general overview, rather than as a
comprehensive listing, and the omission
of any particular building, feature or
space does not imply that it is of no
interest in conservation terms.

Text, photographs and map overlays by
Patrick Taylor, Conservation Architect,
Babergh District Council 2010.

Topographical Framework

The village of Bildeston is situated in
south central Suffolk, about five miles
north of the market town of Hadleigh and
seven miles east of Lavenham.

The majority of the settlement sits on the
east bank of a tributary of the River
Brett, which flows south from here down
through Hadleigh and onwards to join
the Stour at Higham. Only the farm
attached to Bildeston Hall sits on the
west bank within the village and the
remote Church is about half a mile
further west.

The river valley has cut down some forty
metres through the overlying boulder
clay of ‘High Suffolk’ to reveal locally
gravels, crags and pockets of older
London Clay.

From Stowmarket the B1115 road
through the village runs parallel to the
river from Hitcham in the north to
Hadleigh in the south.

Hadleigh was at one time served by a
branch line of the Eastern Union
Railway, now closed down, making
Needham Market and Stowmarket to the
north-east the village’s nearest stations.

The village itself is approximately 35
metres above OD, with the adjoining
hilltops up to about the 75 metre mark.

Archaeological Significance

The Suffolk County Historic Environment
Record lists about a dozen sites of
archaeological interest in the parish of
Bildeston. The oldest of these are
Mesolithic in date: an axehead and
scatter of flints, indicating a long if not
continuous human occupation of the
area.

Iron Age and Roman finds include
pottery and coins, along with stretches of
an old Roman road crossing the valley
north of the village. These fit within a
line of other remnants, to the west at
Brent Eleigh and further east beyond
Bildeston in Wattisham parish. Medieval
remains include both the remote Church
and a Chapel site in the centre of the
village.

It is believed that the Church area is the
site of a ‘Deserted Medieval Village’, the
present later settlement having arisen
around the market place on the road
through from Hadleigh to Stowmarket.

The remainder of the sites listed are
Post-Medieval and include an ancient
woodland and the bridge carrying the
road to Chelsworth over the river at the
south end of the village.

Bildeston was listed in the Domesday
survey of 1086 as belonging to Queen
Edith prior to 1066, and Walter the
Deacon at the time. The holding
included a meadow of 20 acres and
woodland for 10 pigs as well as a church
with 40 acres of land.

Intrinsic Quality of Buildings

Bildeston has but one grade I listed
building, the Church of St Mary
Magdalene of flint with stone dressings,
now with the west tower rebuilt in timber
after its collapse in 1975. It is mostly of
15
th
Century date with some 16
th
Century
additions. The two storey porch has
some good flushwork and a priest’s
chamber at first floor.

‘Not a big church’ according to Pevsner,
he also says the ‘doorway is uncommonly
ambitious’.

Five other buildings are of sufficient
quality to justify listing at grade II*.
These are all timber-framed and jettied
to the front with plaintile roofs:

Two have totally rendered facades:
Newbury Farmhouse at 22 High Street
was originally the Manor House and nos.
15/17 Chapel Street started as a small
medieval hall house.

The Crown Inn at 104 High Street started
out as a merchant’s house in the late 15
th

Century, becoming an Inn by the 17
th

Century, and has exposed timber-framing
at first floor level.

The other two grade II* buildings adjoin
each other at 23-33 and 35/37 Chapel
Street. Both date from the 15
th
Century
and have exposed framing to both floors,
en masse quite a striking elevation. Nos.
23-33 adjoin the site of the former
Chapel and might conceivably have been
used as a Gild Hall when first built,
which would explain the high quality of
timber-framing employed.

Traditional Building Materials

Bildeston has good examples of most of
Suffolk’s local building materials that
have been used through the ages.

Timber-framed construction is fairly
ubiquitous, but not always in an
immediately obvious way. Jettied first
floors and exposed timbers can be found
on most streets, but in most cases brick
or rendered fronts have hidden the clues
and steep clay plaintiled roofs are all
that remain visible, sometimes hidden
behind a parapet wall.

The more usual Suffolk vernacular
employing a finish of lime render on
laths covering and protecting the timber
framing is mostly used, sometimes with
applied patterns in pargetting.

Soft ‘Suffolk red’ bricks appear as
chimneys on many buildings, and form
the walls of those of the 19
th
Century,
either solid or refronting many a timber-
framed construction, although many of
these are now painted over.

There are similarly buildings of the
harder ‘Suffolk white’ bricks, probably
sourced from Sudbury or Woolpit, the
majority of these later buildings having
lower pitched slate roofs.

As with most similar settlements, the
outbuildings and rear wings often employ
slightly lower status materials such as
black weather-boarding and are usually
roofed in pantiles.

Hierarchy of Spaces

Because the road through winds, the
linear nature of Bildeston following the
east bank of the river is not immediately
apparent. High Street through the centre
of the village is punctuated on the
western side by the large rectangular
Market Place with its tall central clock.

Off the western side of Market Place to
the south-west, two streets head gently
downhill towards the river, Duke Street
and Chapel Street, merging at their ends
before crossing the river and heading
back uphill as Church Lane. At the
crossing point the character changes
abruptly to that of a countryside lane, the
other streets being mostly urban in
character, lined both sides with buildings
along the back of pavement line.

To the north-east there are two roads
more widely spaced, both climbing
quickly out of the river valley.

At the northern end, off the higher part of
High Street, is Wattisham Road, which a
little out of the village takes the line of
the old Roman Road for a short distance,
before winding through a number of
villages and on to Stowmarket.

At the southern end of High Street, lower
down and nearer the river, the other
road north-eastwards (B1078) heads for
Nedging, Barking and ultimately
Needham Market.

Trees & Planting

Because of its largely built up street
frontages, trees do not figure very much
in the streetscape of Bildeston. They are
however there within the conservation
area in fairly large numbers in back
gardens, often away from view, but
occasionally at the front, spilling over
walls into the street scene.

Many of these have been felt under threat
from time to time and become the
subjects of several Tree Preservation
Orders. These include several Ash, Lime
and Copper Beech trees within the built
up area and three Oaks in the field
adjoining Church Lane just west of the
conservation area.

One large area of trees not so protected,
and probably not threatened by lopping
or development, can be found along a
steeply banked area at the rear of
properties on the north side of Duke
Street. These adjoin a new development
at Squirrell’s Mill Road, mostly outside
the conservation area.

To the south of the conservation area, the
river valley is designated part of the
Brett Valley Special Landscape Area,
and remains rich in wetland trees such as
Willow, Poplar and Alder.

Relationship to Open Countryside

Bildeston’s linear form means that with
single plot depth development, most of
the properties there originally had
farmland to the rear.

The one historic exception to this was the
central island of development between
Duke Street and Chapel Street. However
nowadays with the modern development
of Brookfield off Wattisham Road to the
north-east and Newberry Road and
Manor Road to the south-west and south-
east, this is now the case for far fewer
properties.

As well as the five roads that head out
into the countryside there are still
footpath links from the centre.

Just south of the Crown Inn, High Street
at its lowest point crosses a small stream
coming into the village from the north-
east. Along the northern bank, Definitive
Footpath 1 follows this stream back up
the valley, giving fairly immediate access
to farmland.

Off this path, Footpath 2 heads north-
westwards along the boundary of the
Brookfield estate, leading to Wattisham
Road. From a little nearer the centre, off
Wattisham Road, Footpath 3 leads off
north-eastwards forming a parallel route
to Wattisham.

On the opposite side of the river, off the
lane north from Bildeston Hall, Footpath
8 provides another route to the outlying
Church, parallel to Church Lane.

Prevailing & Former Usage

As one of several villages in the Brett
valley below Lavenham, Bildeston was
undoubtedly involved in Suffolk’s
woollen cloth industry that thrived in the
16
th
and 17
th
Centuries.

Indeed early 17
th
Century records show
the presence in the village of 3 clothiers,
3 weavers, a dornick weaver and 2
clothworkers. Later that century there
were still 3 clothiers, and 3 weavers (2 of
wool and one of linen) and a wool
comber, along with a number of yeomen
and husbandmen. Many of the timber-
framed houses in the village would have
been the result of this ‘wool wealth’.

Later evidence from 1844 directories
indicates a more general agricultural

economy, with 9 farmers, a cattle dealer,
3 saddlers, 2 corn millers and 2 malsters.

By this time the village had become more
of a local service centre and also had 3
academies, 2 blacksmiths, 2 watch
makers, and one each of wine agent,
basket maker, hairdresser in addition to
the usual shops of butcher, baker and
bootmaker. Many of the older buildings
still bear the remains of former
shopfronts, indicative of the village’s
former trading importance. These
should be retained wherever possible.

In 1885 there were still two farmhouses
within the village, one adjoining the Hall
near the river crossing into Church
Road, the other was Brook Farm just
east of the Crown Inn next to the brook .

Losses & Possible Gains

Bildeston has thus far suffered relatively
little in the way of modern intrusions.

Being fairly urban in character, there
has been little room for modern infill.
Some of the unlisted buildings provide
examples of how uPVC windows can mar
otherwise traditionally built elevations,
whilst conservatories in the same modern
material look ill at ease against their
older host buildings.

Rather too many of the village’s brick
buildings have been painted over,
obscuring the local traditional materials
and potentially causing damp problems
to historic properties.

Overhead wiring is a little intrusive in
some places and would benefit from
being put underground when funds
permit.

For the most part the buildings are well
looked after, but one or two could do
with a little attention and timely repair.

One small section of flint walling at the
north end of High Street is also in need
of some repair and another wall on the
southern approach is overloaded with
Ivy, probably to its detriment.

References & Further Reading

Chatwin, C P 1961 East Anglia and Adjoining Areas British Regional Geology
HMSO

D.C.L.G., D.C.M.S. & English Heritage 2010 Planning Policy Statement: Planning
for the Historic Environment (PPS 5) TSO

D.o.E. 1988 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historical Interest: District
of Babergh: Parish of Bildeston

Domesday Book 1986 Suffolk Phillimore

Dymond, D & Martin, E (eds.) 1988 An Historical Atlas of Suffolk Suffolk County
Council

English Heritage 1995 Conservation Area Practice HMSO

English Heritage 2006 Guidance on Conservation Area Appraisals HMSO

Flint, B 1979 Suffolk Windmills Boydell

Goult, W 1990 A Survey of Suffolk Parish History Suffolk County Council

Pevsner, N 1976 The Buildings of England: Suffolk Penguin

Suffolk County Council 2009 Historic Environment Record: Bildeston

Taylor, P 2005 Living in a Conservation Area Babergh District Council

Tithe Map & Apportionment 1839 Bildeston Suffolk Records Office

All maps in this document are based upon the Ordnance Survey’s maps with the
permission of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
© Crown Copyright
Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown Copyright and may lead to prosecution
or civil proceedings. Babergh District Council license no 100023274 2009

This Appraisal adopted as
Supplementary Planning Guidance by
Babergh District Council Strategy
Committee 13 January 2011