Description

SAFFRON WALDEN

TL5338 BRIDGE STREET 669-1/1/31 (East side) 28/11/51 Nos.24 AND 26

GV II*

Pair of houses, originally constructed as an early C15 `Wealden' open hall house. No.24 occupies the service end and hall, No.26 the solar bay. Altered in the late C16 by insertion of floor into hall and addition of wing to rear of solar bay (No.26). Timber-framed and plastered. 2 storeys with early C20 pargetting, peg-tiled roof with large late C16 central stack behind roof apex, second C19 stack through roof pitch at S end. Plan L-shaped with late C16 rear wing to E added to N end bay (No.26). Front, W elevation: central hall area between jettied ends is also jettied at a slightly higher level with a C16 bressumer decorated with folded leaf between twin roll mouldings. Below bressumer, doorway with original flat, depressed 4-centred arched head (leaf and bud decorated spandrels) at S, low end of hall. All over pargetting has panels containing basket, chevron and circular combed decoration. All windows are casements or sliding sashes with glazing bars. Ground floor, S-N, No.24, 2-light late C18 sliding sash window 6x3 panes, hinged C20 shutters each side, C16 doorway with restored boarded and battened door, small C16 2-light moulded mullioned window, slightly projecting late C18 bay window on original hall window site with sliding sash of 2 lights, 6x9 panes. No.26, C20 doorway in `Tudor' style with 4-centred arched head, boarded and battened door, adjacent, 2-light casement window 6x3 panes. First floor, S-N, (No.24), late C18 2-light, sliding sash window, 6x3 panes, C19 single casement, 2x2 panes, peg-tiled gabled dormer window (lights first floor room), 2 casements, 6x3 panes. No.26, single 3-light casement window 9x6 panes. Rear, E elevation: principal stack in 2 phases, stepped sections have bricks of differing thicknesses, wall rendered. No.24, fenestration all C20, irregular casements with glazing bars. Ground floor, one 2x3 lights, one 3x5 lights, one double casement 6x4 lights, fully glazed door as windows, 3x4 lights. First floor, 2 double casements, each of 6x3 lights. No.26, to N, full width wing has traces of old basket decorated pargetting on timber-framed and plastered first floor of S long side, below is of C18/19 brick, all now rendered and colourwashed, peg-tiled roof, stack c1800 at W end. Ground floor had central C20 door with upper glazed panel and lower sunk panel, to W, C20 3-light casement 9x4 panes, to E, C20 2-light casement 4x4 panes. First floor, 2 C19 sliding sashes with bead moulded frames, to W, sashes C20 renewed 6x4 panes, to E, original, 4x4 panes. E end elevation: C20 rendered and textured, half hipped gable, ground floor, C20 double casement window 4x4 panes, first floor, C20 top-opening single light casement 2x3 panes. S end elevation: side of No.24, medieval framing exposed with c1900 red brick nogging, diagonal and herringbone pattern. Frame shows tension bracing of first floor and 2 blocked first floor windows, one, to W, original and one, to E, inserted. Projecting horns of wall plates and collar purlin joints visible. Ground floor has single C20 hinged casement window 2x3 panes. INTERIOR: No.24, principal tie-beam of hall set off-centre towards service partition and carries tall refined decorated ocatagonal crown-post with moulded capital principally of hollow mouldings, `bell' moulded base, 4-way bracing. Post has expanded head bridled round collar-purlin and is heavily sooted. Rear of truss has arched brace to tie-beam. Front of truss cut through for inserted floor and first floor doorway, joints though remain of original `Wealden' arrangement of flying eaves plate with end-brace and bracket under supporting tie-beam, down to principal post of recessed hall. Rear hall window site indicated by stud gap in wall plate. Hall/service partition truss remains with tension bracing and crown post with foot bracing and carpenters' marks. One service doorway remains with 4-centred arched head, sunk spandrels and double hollow-moulded jambs. Second doorway site shown by long head chase-mortice. Pantry/buttery partition central in service bay, evident from stud mortices and wattle groove. Halved and bridled scarf joint in plate of room above. Plain crown-post roof from hall continues over service bay, seen to be covered by additional C20 rafters. Inserted stack set behind and against hall crown-post and backs onto cross-entry from old street door. Rear face of thin C16 bricks with some courses on ground floor set on edge to create a pattern. Ground floor fireplace has steeply cambered mantel-beam (reused?) and jambs rebuilt in C20. First floor fireplace of larger C17 bricks, 4-centred arched head of secondary build (after inserted floor). Sides and back of stack on first floor has mortar of bricks painted in original pink colour. Ground floor ceiling joists of inserted floor framed round stack with simple chamfers. C19 fireplaces on both floors in SW corner of house, both now blocked. No.26 (solar bay). Heavy original ground floor ceiling bridging joist is step-stop chamfered with segment headed fireplace c1800 at N end. First floor, arched braced truss supports hall/solar partition, foot-braced crown-post and old roof intact over block. Rear wing of independent build with mid C16 framing, jowled posts. The 2 bays were once jettied to S side but are now underbuilt in brick. Large kitchen stack at W end backing on to original building, now with C20 fireplace. The complete building (Nos 24 and 26) shows alteration phases very clearly with the mid-C16 infilling of the hall, and construction of the stack, and the continuous, decorated long jetty rear extension all probably contemporary. Also rear wall plate and studding in No.26 was replaced to accommodate the kitchen stack. A further flue was added to the principal stack in the early C17 to provide a fireplace in the chamber over the central room. RCHM records the removal of a hollow chamfered mullion from the original window in the S end, (now blocked) and deposited in the Saffron Walden Museum. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Ratcliffe E: Essex: London: 1965-: 336).

Listing NGR: TL5351338719

External Links

• Wikidata Q17534227

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Recommended Books

• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)