Five Building Contracts from Fifteenth-Century Suffolk

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Abstract
Five building contracts dating from the early 1460s are fully transcribed and interpreted, and their terms are explained in a glossary. They relate to four domestic properties in the west Suffolk town of Bury St Edmunds and a rural barn four miles away. As well as mentioning important structural details such as the differential spacing of studs and the use of green timber, these contracts reveal that the domestic houses of Bury were advanced in design. One open-hall is replaced by a ‘parlour’ with screens passage and jettied solar above; two completely new houses were to be continuously jettied against the street. Fashionable decorative features such as oriel windows and carved shafts were deliberately copied from other houses in the town.

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