This is believed to have originated as a house in the 14th Century. By 1482 it had passed to Nicholas Sidney, son of Thomasine Hopton, Lady of the Manor. Her family crest was a griffin. It is known that Sir Arthur Hopton used the Griffin as a court, the first manorial court being held in 1507. Arthur Hopton was the great-grandson of John Hopton, Nicholas Sidney’s step-father.
The house was sold to Henry Baxter, then in 1519 to John Reynold. In 1523 it was bought from Thomas Randell by William Wysbych whose will dated 1530 and proved in 1532 provided that ‘a hundred loads of gravel shall be received at the sale of the Gryffyn to be laid between the Gryffin and the church’. At a court held in March 1532, it was presented that Joan Wysbych had sold to Nicholas Nollothe ‘a fine tenement and four acres of freehold land in Yoxford called Le Gryffyn’.
In 1585 Nicholas Whynway (?) had sold to Thomas Thurston ‘his capital messuage called Baxsters or now called the Gryffyn’.
In 1588 it was back to Whynway and his heirs, in 1598 the rent was being paid by George Seapence and In 1608 by Henry Rosington (or Bosington), gentleman, who lived at Burtons, now called The Grove.
In 1616 it was described as ‘a freehold messuage now called Le Gryffen, now of Francis Read’. In 1620 the Churchwardens’ Accounts include, when the church windows were reglazed:- ‘Item spente at Francis Reade in beere upon the billets being brought and carried into the church and the leade was carried in’. In 1624 Francis Read still paid quit rent but was buried on 7th April 1628. He left his wife Ursula a life interest in the Griffin with the remainder to his nephew Francis Dey. Ursula married Henry Winston at Sibton within a year. The 1635 bailiffs’ accounts show that Winston held the Griffin in right of his wife Ursula and Anne Winston had a licence to sell wines in Yoxford. On 11th February 1639/40 Mrs Winston was buried. In April Francis Dey acknowledges he holds ‘a messuage called ‘the Gryffin’ with garden, orchard etc. by annual rent and suit of court’ (meaning he was bound to attend and act as juryman in the manorial court).
‘The Gryphon’ was then leased to John Wright and the lease had not expired when he made his will in 1657. In 1674 a Mr Chapman was assessed at seven chimneys for the Hearth Tax. William Chapman, innkeeper died in 1678. Next came John Ling, who in 1687 sold it to Edward Elsden, described as ‘innholder’ in 1705 and also when he made his will in 1710. In this he gave his eldest son Edward, ‘all that my freehold messuage or tenement called by the name of the Griffen, now in my own occupation and with it certain furniture …… in the cellar chamber one [bowle?], in the hall one long table, one great cupboard, one dresser and one pair of coal trundles, in the soldiers’ parlour one long table, in the little parlour one long table’.
By 1747 William Calver was tenant. The premises were advertised in the Ipswich Journal of 25th April that year to be sold or let as from Michaelmas when it was described as freehold. ‘An ancient, commodious and well accustomed house, with five rooms on a floor, convenient stables, brewing office and cellars, and two shops adjoining to the same, all in very good repair. …..There is but one other Inn in the same town’. The Griffin got a share of the coaching trade.
By 1793 when John Thornton was the tenant, smuggling was rife. His cellars were broken open and 29 casks containing 104 gallons of foreign Geneva were stolen. These casks had been seized by the revenue officers, frequent occurrences at that time, as ‘run goods’ and lodged at the Griffin temporarily. Sizewell Gap was a favourite place for running ashore vessels with contraband cargoes from Holland.
By 1804 The Griffin apparently belonged to a John Woodcock but the innkeeper was Richard Foulsham. In 1837 James Woolnough was at the Griffin. He advertised that he was no longer responsible for debts contracted by his wife Betsy. The next Innkeepers (information taken from Commercial Directories eg White’s, Kelly’s, Post Office), were
1830 Daniel Wenden. (He was also a butcher – see the photo below showing his shop on the left).
1837 John Pinkney
1840 William Crisp
1844 H. Porter
1855 and 1862 Charles Bullard
1864 Charles Manning
1869 J. Cattermole.
1874 and 1877 William D. Waters
1879 Henry Ellis Wragg
In 1880 the house was restored by Messrs. Morse, the Lowestoft brewers who had become owners. They removed the covering of white plaster bearing ‘Griffin Inn’ in large black letters. They nailed new cross beams to the struts and the spaces between the beams were coated with rough-cast. This is a relatively early date for this kind of applied decoration. A French window, opening to the ground, was put in the western part of the front.
1884 David Mennell
1891 William Brown
1900 Henry Smith
Early 20th Century Alfred Edwards. ‘During the interval before Alfred Edwards, the wide trap door in the front, leading by a stair to the extensive and ancient cellarage, was closed. The wall from the north-west corner of the house to the roadway, which now separates the front gardens of the inn from Redwald (Magnolia House) was built. (The wall of red and grey bricks dividing the back premises is far older). Of the two gables facing the little front garden, the westernmost retains its original acute angle but the easternmost has been altered in two stages.
An 1891 photograph shows a projecting wing near the east end of the house. It has a gable facing the road, a door and a shop window on the ground floor and a bedroom above. It is roofed with the same pantiles as the main building but the wall is plain white with neither cross beams nor rough-casting.
By 1911 and still in 1925 Walter John Hunter was the occupier. Percy Elliott Lee and his wife came next, then Messrs Morse sold it to the Norwich firm Messrs. Morgan.
In 1939 there was a new sign, a griffin, in bright colours.
In 1948 Percy Elliott Lee died and was succeeded by Ernest Frederick Smith.
From 1958-63 Frederick Evans was the tenant.
A pleasure fair used to be held on the open ground at Whitsuntide. After alterations of the road and the entrance of the bowling green, this continued in the ungrassed space in front of the Griffin.
Sources
Main info thought to be from Parr Yoxford Yesterday
Notes from Record Office 1970s
Griffin – house on site since 1358. from 1482 – Thomasine Hopton, whose family crest was a griffin. 1507 – used as a manorial court. 1635 – licence to sell wine. The Gryffyn
Notes from Charles Delf 1971
Griffin – an old Tudor house – its name from crest of original owner who was the agent or factor of the Cockfield Hall estates