Upholding Suffolk History Brick by Brick

From a long history with Long Melford’s Kentwell Hall, to repairs at Lavenham’s Milden Hall In 2022– having recently completed another brickwork project, we look at how Wayne Mills Construction has been involved in retaining Suffolk’s local landmarks for over thirty years.

Being known for its heritage architecture, as much as its stunning countryside, Suffolk is a county rich in English history and beauty. Here at Wayne Mills, we pride ourselves on often being called upon (and trusted) to work on the abundance of older properties that surround us, in our Eastern region.

Our expert knowledge has been built up working on a large number of properties, spanning more than three decades. As a business we are known for understanding the importance of being sympathetic to a properties age, coupled with the specialist skills and material knowledge that go alongside working on them.

Suffolk especially is full of contrast – a place full of both vast spanning rural landscapes, as well as a rich architectural significance, with many historical buildings remaining today. From the very beginning, Wayne as a young builder was involved in the maintenance and upkeep of some of these century old buildings. In fact, one of his first projects as a builder back in the 1980’s was working on Kentwell Hall in Long Melford, one of the finest remaining Tudor houses in England today.

When working on period properties, its vital that each piece of work is tackled from the beginning as a bespoke project – we appreciate the importance and have the expert know how on how to manage this, from maintaining and restoring original features where possible, to using the right types of material and specialist tools.

The work we have carried out over the years across Suffolk, spans many different periods having completed projects on properties and homes that are Grade I or Grade II listed, as well as Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian buildings.  

From starting out working on brickwork projects for Kentwell Hall thirty years ago, binging us up to date in 2022,  the company has recently been working on a brickwork project for another locally known heritage property.

Milden Hall near the famous village of Lavenham is a 16^th century farmhouse and land, passed down through six generations. It’s now home to beautiful rural holiday accommodation for visitors, looking to stay in a piece of original Suffolk history. Around the property runs a boundary wall that over time has become dilapidated. Having carried out lots of previous work at this property previously, we were called upon to tackle this repair job in Spring 2022.

The original boundary wall dates back to the 1700’s and had now reached the point where it needed replacing. Yet with the original brickwork being in place for so many hundreds of years and especially having such a large presence at the property, being 12 metres long and 3.5 metres high, they called upon us and our specialist restoration services. This involved us carefully rebuilding it to the original spec by cleaning and reusing the existing circa 6,000 bricks.

If you are looking for renovation or repair work for a historical Suffolk building or home – head over to our Period Properties Services page (Link) where you will find lots more information on our services and examples of our previous work.