Purton Green

Arriving at this thatched and timbered building on foot, the centuries fall away. Inside the late medieval walls survives a hall dating to 1250. The house stands surrounded by fields, with unchanging Suffolk countryside in all directions.

Property details
Arriving at this thatched and timbered building on foot, the centuries fall away. Inside the late medieval walls survives a hall dating to 1250. The house stands surrounded by fields, with unchanging Suffolk countryside in all directions.

Casting you back 750 years
Inside its late medieval walls survives a hall from 1250 – a great rarity. Aisled on both sides, with scissor-braced trusses and a highly ornamental arcade at the low end, it must once have been an important place. Today, eating in this unheated ancient hall (best suited to mild weather) casts you back many centuries, it is an evocative place enhanced by your arrival on foot (albeit pushing a modern wheelbarrow).

Reinstating the medieval hall
When we bought it in 1969 it was little more than a ruin. As with almost all medieval houses, a floor and central chimney stack had later been inserted, but these additions were so derelict that we felt justified in removing them, to return the hall to its original open state. Part of the house – the high end – was rebuilt in about 1600. Our conversion of this end into living quarters in the 1970s has now also become a part of the building’s history. These can only be reached through the hall, which you must cross and recross if you stay here, as your predecessors have done for 750 years.

Arriving on foot
The house now stands surrounded by fields, with unchanging Suffolk countryside in all directions. After crossing a ford, you leave your car 400 yards from the house; but we provide a wheelbarrow for the rest of the journey. Arriving on foot at this ancient place is a stirring experience (although maybe for different reasons if it is raining and late).