Description

SAFFRON WALDEN

TL5338 MUSEUM STREET 669-1/1/302 (East side) 28/11/51 Nos.11, 13 AND 15

GV II*

House, now divided into 3. Late C15 with C19 division and fenestration and C20 rear additions and modernisation. Timber-framed and plastered with peg-tiled roof and red brick stacks. Plan rectangular. 2 storey with roof voids now used. Front, W elevation: jettied with 6 jetty brackets along length. Ground floor, 3 boarded front doors, Nos 13 & 15 C19, No.11 C20 with moulded battens. 3 C19 windows with sliding sashes, 2 of 4x2 panes and one 2x2., also C19 hinged single shutter to each window, of battened boards with accompanying iron swivel catch. First floor, three 2-light casement window, each 2x2 panes. Roof steep and high with stack between Nos 13 & 15 showing old irregular bricks at base with C19 rebuild above. Large C18 external end stack seen on S gable end. Rear, E elevation: lean-tos at each end, brick, colourwashed, single storey to S, 2-storey to N with 2-storey gabled unit between. Also, No.15 has deeper C20 extension facing S. 3 doors, No.11 boarded, C20 restored ironwork, Nos 13 & 15 C20 segment headed doors have upper glazing with glazing bars. Windows scattered, C20, of casements either plain, fixed or with glazing bars, 2x2 or 2x3 panes. Roof has 2 C20 hipped peg-tiled dormers with 2-light casements. S end elevation: gable end jetty to street, rear outshut, brick walled, with roof of less steep pitch, bold C18 stack over gable apex with tall external slender C19 stack in pink brick to outshut, base swelling, showing site of bread oven, now removed. Windows scattered, two 2-light C19 casements to rear of C18 stack, C20 narrow, single light casement on ground floor and roof space to front of stack. INTERIOR: considerable framing exposed, clearly showing the elements of a medieval `Wealden', open hall house, whose recessed single bay central hall (No.13) is sooted and has subsequently received an inserted jettied first floor to create a long jettied shape. The orientation of the medieval house is, high end to S, low end to N with a unitary 2-way braced crown-post roof from end to end. No.13 ground floor has a finely moulded head beam at the high (S) end with roll in hollow chamfer. Axial joist of inserted floor chamfered and runs into c1600 inserted stack, backed onto cross-passage site. Stack has small bricks with well preserved herringbone pattern at fireback and timber lintel (now reduced soffit) and inglenook seat and rear salt recesses. Original rear wall now cut through but reset moulded mullions within hall rear window aperture, also accompanying shutter groove. First floor, street fontage has both arched eaves braces intact, originally supporting the Wealden `flying' eaves plate. Roof space, crown post structure clearly sooted. No.15 (N, low end). Ground floor, present street door frame still retains remnants of cyma moulding and doorhead pegs of original cross-entry doorway, very complete similar moulded door frame with cyma and hollow chamfers at rear on same line. Ceiling joists show stud mortices and wattle grooves for buttery-pantry division and gaps on original site of pair of doors. Cross-entry clearly undershot beneath original storeyed end with remnant of screen surviving (from street door), also spere head-beam evident, hollow chamfered to hall with mortice for partial side screening. C18 fireplace of end stack at N end. First floor, crown-post roof with partition studding on hall side, shutter groove and rectangular mortices for moulded mullions of 4-light window to front. Good wall framing in NE corner also sooted framing to hall seen with bold tension brace. Secondary features include a rectangular pattern of large peg holes, probably for a weavers' warping frame and a small corner fireplace to the front, linked to the old inserted stack towards No.13. No.11 (High end bay). Old framing considerable concealed but ground floor has elegantly hollow-chamfer moulded axial joist, now running into S end C18 stack with old timber lintel, now skinned with C20 brick. First floor window on site of original, shown by gap in stud pegging. Crown post roof continues from No.13. Rear lean-to has late C17 origin with simple trapped side purlin roof. The house still retains the framing of a `compressed' Wealden house as is particularly found in towns, with narrow hall (no central crown post truss) and undershot cross-passage. Compression is also shown by the setting of the high end ground floor partition wall back under the solar chamber by approx 0.75m creating a simple canopy ornamented by the moulded head-beam seen in No.13.

Listing NGR: TL5377838683

External Links

• Wikidata Q17534704

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