160, 160A, 162, 164, HIGH STREET

Shops and flats dating to circa 1400, originally timber-framed and now rendered, with gabled plain tile roofs. The building comprises numbers 160, 160A, 162, and 164 High Street, Maldon. Number 160 has a ground floor of painted brick. Number 164 has a centrally rebuilt stack in a diagonal arrangement and two hipped dormers with 20th-century 2-light casement windows featuring central horizontal glazing bars. The first floor of number 162 has two 20th-century top-hung casement windows, each with a central vertical glazing bar. The first floor of number 160 has two sash windows with moulded surrounds and central vertical glazing bars. Number 162 is jettied, displaying exposed brackets and joists. It features a 20th-century shop front on the ground floor with small-pane windows using bulls-eye glass, a 20th-century 6-panelled door with two glazed upper panels, and a recessed 20th-century glazed door providing access to number 162. The rear of number 162 has a 20th-century two-storey rendered extension with a gabled plain tile roof and 20th-century two-light casement windows. A lean-to structure with plain tiles adjoins the rear walls. The rear of number 160 has a 19th-century two-storey extension in tarred red brick with a gabled pantile roof, a further single-storey extension in Gault brick with a gabled pantiled roof, and a large 20th-century flat-roofed extension covering most of the back elevation. The interior reveals a pair of originally identical Wealden-type houses dating to circa 1400, likely built as a speculative venture. Each house includes a two-storey ‘cross-wing’ with a former shop located in the front bay of the ground floor. Fragments of arch-headed windows are visible on the first-floor front elevation, now concealed beneath render. A single-bay hall of unusual length is present with remnants of a hall window in number 162. This unit incorporates a 17th-century inserted floor in the hall and an inglenook stack of the same date. The roofs are simple crown-post constructions featuring thick longitudinal bracing.