Rose And Crown Public House

Public house dating from the 15th, 16th, and later centuries, located on the north-east side of High Street in Maldon. The building is timber-framed with a painted brick front and plain tile roof, gabled to the west and half-hipped at the Butt Lane corner, with a small stack base positioned off-centre on the ridgeline.

The exterior displays 2 storeys with a 6-window range and single-storey extensions at the rear. The first floor contains three 3/6 sash windows, one tripartite small-paned sash, and one blind rendered recess, all with segmental heads. The ground floor has two 20th-century windows with segmental heads and three tripartite windows with side pilasters, flat hood and frieze, and plaster aprons underneath. All windows have plain sashes with etched glass in the lower panes. A 20th-century entrance door with segmental head and small panes opens from the ground floor.

The Butt Lane elevation is part ashlared render and part painted brick with a return frontage of lower eaves line, plain tiles, and a hip to the north end. The first floor here has two 2-light casements with single horizontal glazing bars. The ground floor contains two entrance doors, a small sash with central vertical glazing bar, and a 6-pane window beneath a segmental head.

The rear elevation presents considerable complexity. At the eastern end stands a 2-storey rendered block with plain tile roof parallel to the front range. This has a tall stack with a former oven in its flank and a lean-to roof. The first floor contains a wide 20th-century three-light metal casement, a 2-light casement with central horizontal glazing bar, and a small window with fixed cross-pattern glazing. The ground floor has a 20th-century gabled single-storey extension and entrance door. To the west is a Welsh-slate lean-to extension abutting the rear of a 2-storey cross-wing with hipped and gableted plain tile roof. This wing has a 6-pane casement in its flank and a lean-to extension in black weatherboarding with slate roof, plus a further 20th-century extension with asbestos roof. A stack stump stands against the east flank of the cross-wing, with a larger stack in the valley between the parallel ranges.

The timber-framing represents at least four periods of construction, probably indicating two former separate houses.

The interior retains remains of a 15th-century parlour cross-wing of 3 bays with widely spaced studs, jowled posts, and thick bracing to hollow-chamfered tie beams. Adjacent is a floor of moulded spine beams and bridging joists, likely a late 16th-century insertion into an originally open hall, framed to accommodate a chimney stack and altered to two storeys in the 17th century. Adjoining to the west is a bay of framing with jowled posts on the rear wall and a lambs-tongue-stopped spine beam. Its western partition on the first floor has both straight bracing from posts to tie beam and contemporary small studs. To the east stands a 2-bay cross-wing probably of 16th-century date with exposed bridging joists on the ground floor. One first-floor room retains an early 19th-century fireplace with reeded pilasters and roundels.

Historically, part of the property was called 'Cobbes at the corner' in 1575.