Buildings of interest

The Croft

The Croft is over 500 years old. Inside the house are carvings similar to those on the roof inside the village church porch. The existence of these carvings may perhaps point to the fact that the house was used by masons and other travelling craftsmen. It was the custom for masons, carvers and carpenters to move about from church to church.

The Grange

The Grange is of 16th century foundation and is a timber-framed building.

The Hall

The Hall was at one time known as the Manor. It stands on high ground and may have been the site of a Roman fortification. It had double moats and there was at one time a drawbridge.

The King’s Head

The King’s Head has been traced back to the 12th century and is probably much older. The inn’s sign depicts the head of St. Edmund, the martyred King of East Anglia, who was killed at Hoxne in AD 870. The inn has some fine examples of hewn oak beams and structures.

There were formerly two other inns in the village. The Maltsters Arms, now a private house next door to the King’s Head, and the Maid’s Head which stood at the corner of the Street, still known as ‘Maid’s Head Corner’.

There are several other properties in the village dating from the 16th century, these can be found by exploring some of the roads and lanes in the village.

Pennoyer’s School

Pennoyer’s School was at one time a small chapel belonging to the Guild of St. James. Previously the Guild Chapel had been attached to the north end of the Church. This later chapel was founded in 1401 by John Fordham, Bishop of Winchester.

Initially Guild services were held in the Chapel. In 1670 William Pennoyer provided in his will for a schoolmaster to teach in the free school in the Chapel. The additions to the school are mostly Victorian. Probably the oldest village school in England until its closure in 1988, the building has been given a new lease of life and in 2010 opens as the Pennoyer’s Village Centre.

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