Description

SAFFRON WALDEN

TL53NE ASHDON ROAD
669-1/4/11 (East side (off))
28/11/51 St Aylotts

I

House. Built c1500. Moated and apparently built by Walden
Abbey. Red brick, timber frame rendered with combed
pargetting, peg-tiled roof. Rectangular plan. 2 storeys. The
house is a very complete medieval building with easily
recognisable units. It comprises brick ground floor with
diaper decoration in burnt bricks with timber-framed first
floor jettied on all 4 sides. All windows now, except 2, are
casements, mainly C20 and all have inserted timber lintels but
partly made up with some earlier units.
E front elevation: prominent jetty bressumer has rolled leaf
and roll in cavetto mouldings, corner angle posts recessed
into brickwork, dragon beams with leaf decorated brackets.
Central front doorway of clunch, repaired, on site of
cross-entry, cavetto and roll moulded with label, now with C19
flush boarded door. To S, original window aperture of hall,
moulded and plastered with brick label, clunch window
surround, now with 3-light casement. Late C19 spur wall with
lean-to roof to S for passageway to outbuilding (qv). Simple
boarded house door, 2-light casement. Brick semi-octagon newel
stair tower partly rebuilt to square. 3-cant solar bay window
under jetty, partly clunch, repaired, lancets, 1:4:1, diagonal
brick corner buttress. N of central doorway, 2 casement
windows 3 and 5 lights for buttery and kitchen areas, inserted
doorway with timber lintel, simple boarded door. First floor,
S end blank, centre and N end, three 2-light casements and one
3-light. Kitchen stack at N end, top rebuilt in C19, inserted
C19 smaller stack over junction of buttery and kitchen.
Rear W elevation: 2 large identical stacks with upper stepped
stage and pair of conjoined diagonal shafts (partly rebuilt)
at centre and S ends for hall and solar rooms. To N, gabled
2-storey brick and timber stair/garderobe tower at
buttery/kitchen junction, with large upper fixed 2x3 casement
window and lower blocked round headed aperture. To N, original
kitchen doorway with double chamfered brickwork and 4-centred
arched head with C19 boarded door. At SW corner, diagonal
buttress. Projecting jetty bressumer along elevation, mainly
undecorated except at N and S ends where decoration returned
round corners. Ground floor window between stacks, slightly
projects, moulded brick sill and straight wall joints of
larger,elaborate window originally for hall, now 4-light
casement. N of hall stack is 4-light casement ahd 2-light
casement in original chamfered brick aperture. N end, 3-light
window along rest of range.
S end elevation: ground floor diagonal buttresses to corners,
off-centre repaired 3-light clunch window, 2-centred heads.
Moulded bressumer repaired with simple boarding. First floor,
central 3-light casement with glazing bars, 6x3 panes. N end
elevation: dominated by projecting stepped stack, repaired
with upper section rebuilt.
INTERIOR: although partly re-partitioned the medieval lay-out
is clear, with large buttery and kitchen units requiring the
cross-entry to the hall to be roughly central to the whole
range. Ground floor ceiling joists moulded, mainly rolls.
Joists in service rooms though only chamfered. Solar stair
tower has original lower clunch and upper oak-block newel
steps also original clunch doorway and boarded door with
fleur-de-lys strap hinges. One doorway re-sited, originally
between hall and solar has shell decorated spandrels. Lateral
hall fireplace in clunch, flat 4-centred arch, cyma and hollow
chamfer moulding. Kitchen fireplace mantle beam is 5m long.
First floor, original passage partition along range on E side
with 3 original richly moulded doorways with decorated
spandrels giving acces from newel stair to high end rooms. At
N end, passage turned to meet stair tower with 3 similar
doorways to chambers over service rooms. Great chamber at S
end has elegant fireplace with moulded brick jambs and
embattled timber lintel continuing moulding. Big deep window
sills imply oriel windows originally. First floor wall framing
internally braced with internal recurved stud bracing. Wall
plates have edge-halved and bridle-butted scarfs. Roof large,
8 and a half bays, trusses have upper and lower wind-braced
butt side-purlins. Also low queen posts with rear crossed
bracing, high collar with upper X bracing. Common rafters over
purlins.
HISTORICAL NOTE: this high level building may have been an
upland retreat for the Walden Abbey community. The evidence of
very ample and richly decorated first floor accommodation and
spacious service provision including a very large kitchen
fireplace suggest the presence of a number of people at one
time.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Ratcliffe E: Essex:
London: 1965-: 337; Hewett C: English Historic Carpentry:
Chichester: 1980-: 218).

Listing NGR: TL5695539918

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17539554

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014