Josua

This is a late 16th and 17th century house. It is located in Maldon, Essex, on the east side of Silver Street, and was formerly known as No. 4 Chandlers. The house comprises two unequal but parallel wings set at right angles to the street. The front is timber-framed and rendered, with gabled plain tile roofs. A long, two-storey rear extension also exists, with a gabled plain tile roof and a black weatherboarded first floor.

The front elevation features two gables with 19th-century bargeboards bearing semicircular lobes, connected by a short length of timber-framed parapet. Each gable has a two-storey cant-sided bay window with sash windows featuring central vertical glazing bars. Paneling is found between each storey and at the head of the bays, where consoles support flat hoods. A centrally positioned entrance has a projecting moulded hood on console brackets, a moulded architrave, and a six-panel raised-and-fielded door with glazed top panels. A rebuilt 17th-century stack rises through the rear ridgeline of the northern wing, with two diagonal shafts. A large 19th-century stack is located in a similar position on the southern wing. A 20th-century carport with a pierced red-brick northern flank wall is set on the north side of the house. The long rear range has a black weatherboarded first floor and a rendered ground floor, with a mix of 20th century windows.

The interior reveals a high-quality late 16th-century timber frame, resulting in a condensed plan form. A rear staircase tower incorporates jowled posts in a reversed assembly with a curved wall brace and now includes an 18th-century splat-baluster winding stair. A mid-rail within the wall separating the wings is constructed of brick. The roof features A-frames with arched bracing to the collars. An original stack in the north wing once housed a wide rebuilt fireplace on the ground floor; the stone fireplace has been moved to Beeleigh Abbey. On the first floor, a stone fireplace has a frieze of roses flanking a cartouche, an arched fire opening with four straight cants, carved spandrels with blank shields, and quadrant-moulded jambs with vase stops. A smaller fireplace in the south wing has a semicircular hearth. A surviving jamb of a late 16th-century door opening is present on the ground floor, and above a fireplace, an early painted harvest scene remains. The rear extension range is partly 17th century, featuring reused timber and a stack with a hole in the flank for a smoking chamber. Very extensive late 19th-century brick barrel-vaulted cellars are also present.