A 17thC Building with later bay window. Over the years a Spicers, ‘The Plough’, a Pork Butchers, a Tea Shop then a chippy the building retains its ancient structure.
Gingerbread Cottage is a C17 timber-framed cottage which has remained relatively unchanged over the years – particularly when compared to the property of a similar age still standing on the opposite side of the street.
Yes, the bay window inserted in the front is probably less than 150 years old and the thatched roof has been replaced with tiles but the building has not been entirely hidden behind a Georgian or Victorian brick facing. Inside the building, the heavy ancient beams remain clearly visible and the jauntily tilted wing at the left rear of the property adds to the feeling of great age.
The gravelled area to the side and brick wall behind that provokes the atmosphere of an earlier time when commercial premises were also domestic, with the tradesmen living in and above the businesses they ran.
One source claims that in its earlier years, this building was a salt store and spicer’s shop. Luxury goods when Gingerbread Cottage was built.
The Dutch, with whom East Anglia had strong trading links, were particularly active in the salt trade and much of their Colonial expansion in the 17th C was fuelled by the search for this commodity harvested by enslaved peoples.
Spices have always been highly prized, luxury products and the fact that Harleston could support such a specialist shop says much for the wealth of the town in the medieval and post medieval times.