What’s the secret history of your house?….

When I was researching my book “Sudbury, Long Melford, and Lavenham Through Time” (available from Amazon), this postcard from the early 1900s totally and utterly baffled me.

I “knew” I was in the right place for the Bull Hotel, but I just couldn’t find the building.

This was bizarre.

I’ve long known Long Melford’s Bull Inn – with its very large and striking Tudor frontage.

I’d first encountered the hotel when I went to a lovely wedding reception there in the late 90s. Additionally, I had stayed in the Bull several times in the years immediately before I wrote my book.

But looking at my postcard showing the hotel from the early 1900s, I had a totally ditzy moment about it. I thought the photographer had incorrectly captioned it. It just didn’t look like the Bull I knew and loved.

So I walked up and down Long Melford’s three mile-long Hall Street looking for this Georgian building…

That was a bad research day – pouring with rain – I was being totally ditzy – walking up and down Hall Street – and I ended up soaked through with sore feet!

I just could not locate the building…

Then I twigged I’d been looking at it all along and it was hiding in plain sight.

Of course, when trying to locate the building, I’d totally forgetton the Georgian’s and Victorian’s love for cladding beautiful Tudor timber-framed buildings with plaster or brick.

The facade shown in my early 1900s postcard was placed onto the building in the 1820s. For over a hundred years, the Bull Hotel had the appearance of a grand square-fronted symmetrical Georgian building – not a sprawling timber framed Tudor structure.

But the cladding was finally taken down in 1935 – revealing its original beautiful timber-framed Tudor building.

Strange to think that our Victorian and Edwardian ancestors – if they’d visited Long Melford – would have seen the Bull Hotel as being a splendidly imposing Georgian building.

During the Georgian period, many gorgeous Tudor timber-framed houses were encased in a red-brick facade. We think them to be an elegant Georgian buildings. Whereas they’re hiding in plain sight a fabulous Tudor structure.

Do you live in a Georgian house? Is it hiding it’s past?

If you are fascinated about the history of your home, then you’ll be interested in my new online course

🏡 If Walls Could Talk…
Uncover the secret history of your home🏡

Make you note in your diary… signup starts from 19 September 2019.

Course commences on Monday 30 September 2019

Keep an eye on my blog throughout rest of September for more news.

I’m also doing regular posts on my Facebook page about how to

🏡🏡 Uncover the secret history of your home🏡🏡

I hope you’ll join me and take part in this fascinating course. Learn how you can trace the history of your home.

As this is the first pilot version of my course, it’ll be offered at a very special low price that will not be repeated.

Resources for tracing the history of your home

I’ve written a short pdf listing some of the resources that you can use for  researching the history of your house.

Download 25 online resources for uncovering the secret history of your home…

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Long Melford Through Time

Post created: September 2019 © Kate J Cole | Essex Voices Past™ 2012-2019