Description

This List entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 22/05/2017

TL 5338,
669-1/1/113,

SAFFRON WALDEN,
CHURCH STREET (south side),
Nos. 29 and 31

(Formerly listed as located in Castle Street)

28/11/51

GV

I

Shop, was once part of the Sun Inn, which included Nos 25 & 27
Church Street (qv) and 17 Market Hill (qv). Mid C14, altered
C16, frontage decorated C17, restored C19. Two storeys.
Timber-framed, plastered with elaborate pargetting, peg-tiled
roof. L shaped plan, part of H hall house with jettied
cross-wing and hall.
Front N elevation: similar to Nos 25 & 27 in that it was
reworked in late C19, all windows and doorways either remade
or heavily restored in Tudor style. All upper windows, and one
lower, have casements with intersecting cast-iron hexagonal
latticed glazing bars, as a building style. Roofs were
re-raftered with side purlins and new barge-boards. Remaining
old features include jetty joists, cross-wing door spandrel
boards and extensive late C17 pargetting. Elevation comprises
hall at E end with C14 cross-entry door to E, 2-centred arched
head with quatrefoils and trefoils in spandrel panels. Door of
over-lapping nailed arrised boards. Above, projecting porch
with 3-light iron latticed window, gable barge-boards rebuilt
with Jacobean arabesque decoration, deep original supporting
braces. To W, C17 pargetted motif of swag with birds. Slightly
projecting gabled bay window in similar style to porch with
Jacobean decoration, ground and first floor windows both of 5
lights, ground has upper transom, both iron lattices. Cambered
tie-beam with decoration similar to barge-boards, date I W
1625. Between windows is pargetted bird in roundel. To W, tall
jettied solar cross-wing, ground floor shop window and door,
all C19 restoration. Window, 2 sections, each with mullion and
2 transoms, door with overlight and upper glazing, 2x2 panes
and 2 lower inset boarded panels continues design from
windows. First floor, 4-light window with iron latticed
casement, gable projects over double tie-beams and facia
board, all moulded, gable pargetted with upper face and lower
date of 1676. 3 pargetted panels between windows, central bird
and outer stylised leaf scrolls.
Rear, S elevation: irregular fenestration, but 2 gabled,
timber-framed and plastered units corresponding to medieval
form. C19 stack in Tudor style over hall unit, hall unit has
been expanded round stack as a 2-storeyed gabled extension.
Ground floor windows, one sash, 3x4 panes, one casement, 2x2
panes, one single paned, fixed, also, plain C20 door with 2
upper glazed panes. First floor windows, 1 triple sash
1x4,3x4,1x4 panes, one sash, 4x4 panes.

INTERIOR: original framing mainly obscured by C19 plastering.
Hall has inserted floor and ground floor central room (hall
area) has early C18 shallow recessed panelling and bolection
moulded fireplace in lateral stack on rear wall. Spandrels
boards of rear cross-entry door survive, plain but with hollow
chamfers to 2-centred arch. Also, cut framing of hall service
division partly visible. Solar cross-wing jetty joists have
centre-tenoned jointing. Old stud and wattle groove marks
imply that ground floor hall `high' end wall was recessed
under cross-wing to create a canopy at `high' end of the hall.
First floor plain now, except for part of the tie-beam and
braces of a spere partition truss of the hall. The medieval
framing is seen from the roof space with crown-post roofs to
both hall and cross-wing. Also the high end of the hall seen
to have upper multiple decorated arched bracing. The building
is dated to c1350 (Hewett).
(Hewett C: English Historic Carpentry, Chichester: 1980-).

Listing NGR: TL5381138578

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17539668

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

• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)