Description

MALDON

TL8407SE SILVER STREET
574-1/6/194 (North West side)
02/10/51 No.3
Blue Boar Hotel

GV II*

Includes: No.12 PRINCES STREET.
Hotel. Late C14, C16 and early C19. Main range is
timber-framed with front of Suffolk white brick in Flemish
bond; roof of this is hipped and of plain tiles. Various rear
ranges with roofs of plain tiles or slate and walls of
brickwork render or weatherboarding.
EXTERIOR: front range of 3 storeys with cellar; 5-window
range; others largely of 2 storeys arranged to frame a narrow
courtyard. The Silver Street elevation has a plain parapet
with 2 low steps up to the centre. The 2nd floor has square
recessed 16-pane sash windows with painted rubbed brick flat
arches. The 1st floor has similar, but deeper, windows and an
Inn sign in elaborate wrought-iron bracket. On the ground
floor is an off-centre Tuscan porch with dentilled cornice and
segmental-bowed front. The pair of doors each have 2 moulded
panels over a flush panel and a rectangular fanlight over.
Either side are bay windows, one square C20 with very small
panes and one cant-sided with large panes. Elliptical-headed
carriage arch with painted timber gates gives access to yard.
Ground floor also has a single 16-pane sash window with
bullseye glass and an entrance door with semicircular head,
semicircular leaded fanlight and 2 raised-and-fielded panels.
The rear of this range is rendered where not obscured by other
structures and there are two 12-pane sash windows and a rear
wall stack.
The historically most important elevation is the north-east
face of a long range immediately south-west of the carriage
arch. Beneath the arch a wall of substantial timber-framing
with arch bracing is exposed with 2 small-paned fixed-light
windows. To the rear of the arch, a short length of this
structure is revealed over its full 2 storeys with a remnant
of the plain tile roof. To the rear of this (north-west) is a
long jettied 2-storey range, partially underbuilt but with the
framing exposed on upper floor. The 1st floor has a 9-pane
fixed-light window, 2 unequal lights, small-paned
horizontal-sliding casement windows, one tripartite sash
window with one vertical glazing bar and a C20 small-paned
window with top ventilator. The ground floor has two 2-light
small-paned casements, two 3-light small-paned casements and a

C20 small-paned casement with top vent. The north-west gable
has an end stack.
Beyond this range is a late C17 two-storey extension with
plain tiles, a 1st floor of black tarred boarding and a
lean-to plain tiled ground floor of render with a door and C20
small-paned window. Beyond this again is a C19 two-storey
outbuilding of yellow-pink brick with slate roof, gabled to
south-east and hipped to north-east, forming staff cottages
with loft over. This has small-paned sash windows and 2 gabled
porches on brackets.
The rear elevation to Coach Lane of the jettied block, is of
painted pebbledash and with rear wall stack with exposed
fireplace. The 1st floor has 2 unequal-light windows with
small panes, a C20 small-paned window and a 6-pane sash. The
ground floor has 3 glazed doors, two 16-pane sash windows and
a small window with cross-pattern glazing. The C17 extension
beyond has a 16-pane sash window over a square bay window with
large panes and its slate hipped roof extends to form a
shallow porch.
Attached to the rear of the C19 loft block is No.12 Princes
Street (now part of Blue Boar complex) which is a 2-storey mid
C19 L-plan house with slate roof, yellow stock brick and with
margin-glazed sash windows. To the street is a doorcase with
fluted pilasters and rectangular fanlight. To the rear of the
main hotel block, which fronts Silver Street is a substantial
2-storey mid C19 kitchen/service extension of yellow stock
brick with mixture of hipped and lean-to slate roofs. This has
small-paned sash windows and a rooftop clerestorey ventilator
with independent hipped slate roof.
To the north-west of this is a single-storey L-plan block with
plain tile roof and of stock bricks which links to a late C19
one-storey-plus-loft stable block, of red Flemish-bond brick
with black engineering brick jambs to openings. This is
relatively unaltered and has projecting gabled loft door and
roof of pantiles with Suffolk verge detail.
INTERIOR: the timber-framed structure immediately to the
south-west of the carriage arch is the oldest surviving part,
and was a 3-bay building of 2 storeys. This appears to be of
the late C14 and is very similar in carpentry detail to the
Swan Hotel, High Street (qv). The front ground-floor room had
a central door leading into the central bay with curious
alternating front and rear mortices for wall studs. The rear
(north-west) wall has a series of ogee arches at both levels,
some moved from elsewhere in the wall. All members are
double-pegged, parts are unjowled and one original tie beam
has been reused in ceiling of the Hotel reception area. Part
of the moulded cross-quadrate crown-post roof has survived
where undisturbed by early C19 rebuilding, which affected the

front part of structure.
That part of main frontage range that now comprises the main
entrance contains remnants of a 2-bay hall, formerly
open-framed at its south-west end. This has moulded arch
braces of a character suggestive of the C14 but of a delicacy
more likely to be of the mid C16.
To the north-east of this are fragments of a 2-storey
cross-wing, the bressumer of which is moulded (to be seen in
the dining room) and this suggests 2 wide shop-like openings
to the street. The late C14 structure (now the bar) is of
particular interest and may represent a fragment of an in-line
house, at right-angles to street perhaps akin to the structure
behind the Nags Head, Shrewsbury.
HISTORY: in the 1530s John Church, a leading Burgess of
Maldon, and former auditor of Beeleigh Abbey, purchased the
property and erected the jettied range to rear. In doing so he
converted the whole complex into the Blue Boar Inn in
deference to the De Vere, Earl of Oxford, the property being
part of the estate of Earls of Maldon. This jettied range
provided a wide staircase, a large chamber on each floor and a
series of smaller rooms. The carpentry is somewhat old
fashioned with octagonal crown posts, and is an apparent
attempt to copy the appearance of the older building. The yard
elevation had oriel windows and external curved wall bracing.
(RCHME: Essex Central and South-west: London: 1921-: 174:6).

Listing NGR: TL8490607084

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17532168

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.

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