Historic Building Record undertaken in advance of a Planning and Listed Building application (CBC planning application nos. 150338 and 150339). Mill House is a grade II-listed timber-framed and rendered building on the eastern side of Mill Lane (NHLE no. 1273724), approximately equidistant between St Mary’s Church and Dedham Mill. In addition to its historic fabric, which includes fine carved details of the early-17th century, the property is of special importance as the home of John Constable’s sister Martha between 1821 and her death in 1843. Constable is known to have visited the house, and a view of Mill Lane apparently painted from a first-floor window is now in the V&A. The house was initially built as an open hall at the beginning of the 16th century, but was much enlarged a century later and again in the mid-19th century. A major refurbishment in the Mock Tudor style followed during the 20th century, probably in at least two phases, and the building displays many features that are typical of the work of Mrs Grace Faithfull Roper, a Dedham-based amateur architect of the Arts and Crafts movement. A red-brick detached bake-house or brew-house to the rear is among the most sophisticated and best preserved examples of its kind in the county, surviving complete with bread oven, copper, sink, pump and ventilation shutters. A partly demolished brick structure in one corner is a slightly later insertion that appears to have supported a missing brewing vessel. The tithe map of 1838 shows an earlier bake-house with a markedly different alignment on much the same site, but the present structure dates from the mid-19th century. A second detached building to the east of the house consists of a timber-framed and weatherboarded stable, cart shed and hay loft of the late-18th century with a mid-19th century red-brick extension to the north. This too is unusually well preserved, retaining its mid-19th century wainscot, loose box doors and manger, but its most historically significant feature is an original boarded stall at the northern end of the 18th century section. This has remained almost completely unaltered since John Constable is likely to have used it, and provides one of Dedham’s most tangible links with the artist.<1>