‘Edgar’s Farmhouse’ was moved to the museum in 1972.
The building was originally a 14th-century aisled Hall house of a relatively high status, suggested by its pattern of timber framing and the known affluence of its builders, John and Ascelina Adgor (Edgar). According to Suffolk County Archives, ‘In 1346, the Adgors held nearly 40 acres of arable land, 1.5 acres of meadow, 1 acre of pasture, a rood (quarter acre) of wood and 3 acres of elderwood. In return they paid an annual rent of 12 shillings and attended the court of Lord Edmund of Combs every three weeks to play a role in upholding the law in the parish. This implies that John Adgor may have been the equivalent of a magistrate or resident juror, and thus a person of some social standing.’
By the time the building was dismantled on its original site in the parish of Combs, Suffolk in the 1970s, it had been extensively altered and enlarged, losing many original elements. Only the Hall was reconstructed at the Museum with cement-rendered walls, and no early windows or doorways (or representations of them).
Historian Norman Scarfe put this more expressively in the 1980s: ‘it was put cheek-by-jowl with the raw edge of Stowmarket on the museum’s own suburban boundary. Worse even than its embarrassing new perch, it was given an indefensible cement-based cladding which it has worn, like a penitential sheet, ever since.’
The farmhouse was, unusually given it had been relocated, listed at Grade II* until last year. We applied to have it delisted in order to be eligible to apply for planning permission to move it.
Regardless of the listing, it is an important building and there is an opportunity to reconstruct it to a higher standard following further research. We commissioned a specialist assessment of the building and this work is ongoing.
We have dismantled Edgar’s Farmhouse and the next stage is to record and assess the timbers.
In parallel we are fundraising to enable its reconstruction on a site further down the museum site. We intend to also recreate an outbuilding which would have been used to prepare and store food. When recreated, we intend to use the building to interpret medieval food.

Edgars farmhouse being moved to the museum, 1971

Edgar’s Farmhouse being dismantled, 2025 © Traditional Oak Carpentry
Images taken by Traditional Oak Carpentry.

Architects impression of proposed Edgars Farmhouse reconstruction