37, Church Street

This is a house dating back to the 16th century with early 17th-century alterations, located in Maldon. The front of the house is timber-framed with rendered brick and imitation timber-framing, and has a plain tile roof that slopes lower at the east end. A central chimney stack is present. The front façade features two windows on each floor with 16 panes per sash. The west gable has applied imitation framing, with a 4-light, small-paned casement window on each floor. A fixed window with six panes is also on the ground floor. The east side has a 2-light casement window on the first floor and a 16-pane sash window on the ground floor. A parallel, two-storey range with a shallower roof, likely dating to the 18th century, is situated to the rear, along with a modern flat-roofed single-storey extension.

The interior reveals the remains of a former open-hall house with a service cross-wing from the 16th century at the east end. Features include soffit-tenoned floor joists, jowled posts, evidence of service doors, and a central ground-floor partition. The roof is a simple collared rafter type. A repaired window with hollow-chamfered mullions, rebated for glazing and mortices for small bars, is evident on the east flank, along with remnants of a mantel beam on a central 17th-century chimney stack, which has been altered at its base. The western part of the house is a late 16th/early 17th-century rebuilding, featuring substantial spine and bridging joists, all with lambs-tongue stops, additional roll mouldings and scalloped decoration. A similar structure supports the attic floor above. The roof is notable for having a clasped side purlin on the rear slope and joggled side purlins on the front slope, all constructed as a single build. The joggled side purlin accommodated a dormer, with a chamfered soffit featuring lambs-tongue stops. This single large bay of timber framing was originally ‘open’ at the western side, likely against a now-missing cross-wing.