Lavenham's ancient high street is world famous — mostly for it's extraordinary collection of buildings that are, for want of a better word, wonky. It's a place 'where colourful timbered houses leaning drunkenly at impossible angles', as Flora Watkins put it in 2022, when interviewing the couple who live in The Crooked House, a home that's arguably the wonkiest of the lot.
The aptly-named Crooked House in Lavenham.
For those worried about whether buying one of these 600-year-old houses makes sense, there's good news: the biggest danger comes from getting splinters from the 14th century beams. 'It’s incredibly strong,' Oli Khalil-Martin, who lives in The Crooked House, told Flora. 'A structural engineer who came to look at the ceiling said it’s four times stronger than any commercial building today.'
Lavenham: 'Leaning drunkenly at impossible angles' says it all.
All that is great news for anybody keen to buy one of the prettiest homes for sale in Lavenham, today; The Old Grammar School, which is on the market via David Burr at £1.1 million. What's even better news is that the house was, as you might have guessed, once a school — a school with very famous ex-pupil: John Constable, one of Britain's greatest-ever artists.
Originally a wool merchant’s house, this building on Barn Street was once the site of the school that the young Constable attended. It was the site of Lavenham Grammar School between 1647 and 1887.
The artist's time at the school was right in the middle of that period, in 1777 — but it wasn't a happy part of his young life. He was sent to the school as a full boarder at the age of 11, but complained of receiving ‘unwarranted beatings’ from the teachers (the brutality of that won't surprise anyone who's read Tom Brown's Schooldays). His parents pulled him out of the school and he was dispatched, as a day boy, to the Royal Grammar School in nearby Dedham.
It proved to be a wonderful move. The teachers encouraged his interest in calligraphy and drawing, and the daily walk between his home in East Bergholt and the school is thought to have instilled a deep knowledge of and love for the Suffolk countryside.
You've probably noticed that The Old Grammar School isn't quite as wonky as many of Lavenham's houses; that's most likely due to its relative modernity. This Grade I-listed house dates to 1530, and was among the last of the great merchant houses to be built before the collapse of Lavenham’s wool and cloth industry.
After that it fell on hard times for many years. According to selling agent David Burr, it was rescued from near dereliction in the mid 1990s before being sympathetically renovated into the current arrangement: a four-bedroom house, retaining many original features.
The best news of the lot is that things have been brought into the 21st century where you'd want them to be — kitchen, bathroom — but the character of the place is intact wherever possible. Thus, ancient beams have been left unfinished, nooks and crannies are used for storage and bookshelves, and four-poster beds are in most of the rooms. It's a joy.
Arranged across three floors, there are two good-sized reception rooms and a kitchen with an Aga on the ground floor. There's also a wine cellar.
There's also a garden that is pleasant but not huge, as you'd expect of a town centre home. Very usefully, there's a double garage in an outbuilding which also has a workshop and a home office.
The Old Grammar School is for sale at £1.1 million — see more details and pictures.
