Hessett: Historic Houses and Angels & Pinnacles

If you are considering a hotel stay in Hessett, two distinct interests stand out: the village’s historic buildings and the Angels & Pinnacles walk to St Ethelbert’s Church. The houses offer different ways to explore architectural history; the walk goes from St Mary’s Woolpit to Hessett and back along the same route. You can consider whether you would like to devote your stay mainly to historic building styles, the walking route, or both.

Historic houses and architectural styles

The Five Bells Inn is a surviving inn dating from the 16th to the 19th century. Its development across several periods is unusual among the vernacular forms of late medieval and post-medieval country houses in Suffolk. This broad time span distinguishes the building from houses in Hessett whose features focus on a narrower date range or a particular architectural element.

Pipers Cottage is a timber-framed house with a rendered exterior, dated to the early or mid-16th century. Here, the construction method, exterior surface and period can be considered together. At Church Cottage, by contrast, the focus is on a single detail: the main entrance door has a surviving arched opening with a pronounced ogee head. An ogee arch is characterised by opposing curves; the term therefore describes the shape of the entrance, not an additional date for the house.

Base-cruck construction can be found in the cross-wing at Wilwyn. Evidence in the original structure suggests a possible 14th-century origin. The construction method and the dating are expressed with different degrees of certainty: the base-cruck construction is a feature of the cross-wing, while the possible date of construction remains a cautious interpretation. At Five Bells Cottage, the focus is on the room layout: behind the parlour on the right are two service rooms. Thus, in Hessett, the construction of a building section and the arrangement of rooms stand alongside one another as distinct architectural topics.

Another historic site is the location of the former Hessett Hall. A small, wet and completely intact square moat is situated there. Its shape and state of preservation make it a different aspect of the village’s history from the timber-framed houses and their architectural details.

Walk to St Ethelbert’s Church

Angels & Pinnacles runs from St Mary’s Woolpit to St Ethelbert’s in Hessett and back along the same route. For your planning, the out-and-back route is a concrete point of reference. The route information was updated on 30 March 2022; check trail conditions before setting out. The walk is also considered suitable for travel by public transport.

St Ethelbert’s Church is open to visitors and for private prayer. Check current visiting arrangements before you travel. If you plan to visit the church as the destination of your walk, you can consider the route and the visit separately: the route describes the outward and return journey, while the visitor information concerns the church itself.

You can decide what you would like your stay to focus on based on these interests, and check trail conditions and visiting arrangements before your trip.

Discover more destinations: Melton, Friston, Saxtead, Dunwich, Bungay, Ixworth, Claydon, Debach

For the main travel overview: Suffolk.