Nos. 29 and 31, CHURCH STREET

Nos. 29 and 31 Church Street, Saffron Walden

A shop that was once part of the Sun Inn, which also included Nos. 25 and 27 Church Street and 17 Market Hill. The building dates from the mid-14th century, was altered in the 16th century, had its frontage decorated in the 17th century, and underwent restoration in the 19th century. It is a two-storey timber-framed structure with plastered walls featuring elaborate pargetting, and has a peg-tiled roof. The plan is L-shaped, forming part of a hall house with a jettied cross-wing and hall.

The front north elevation was largely reworked in the late 19th century, with all windows and doorways either remade or heavily restored in Tudor style. The upper windows and one lower window have casements with intersecting cast-iron hexagonal latticed glazing bars. The roofs were re-raftered with side purlins and new barge-boards. Surviving old features include jetty joists, cross-wing door spandrel boards, and extensive late 17th-century pargetting.

The elevation comprises a hall at the east end with a 14th-century cross-entry door opening to the east, featuring a 2-centred arched head with quatrefoils and trefoils in the spandrel panels. The door consists of overlapping nailed arrised boards. Above this is a projecting porch with a 3-light iron latticed window and a gable with rebuilt barge-boards decorated in Jacobean arabesque style and deep original supporting braces. To the west is a 17th-century pargetted motif of a swag with birds. A slightly projecting gabled bay window in similar style contains Jacobean decoration on ground and first-floor windows, both of 5 lights, with the ground-floor window having an upper transom and iron lattices. The cambered tie-beam is decorated similarly to the barge-boards and is dated 1625. Between the windows is a pargetted bird in a roundel. To the west stands a tall jettied solar cross-wing with a ground-floor shop window and door, both from 19th-century restoration. The window has 2 sections, each with a mullion and 2 transoms; the door has an overlight and upper glazing of 2x2 panes with 2 lower inset boarded panels continuing the window design. The first floor has a 4-light iron latticed casement window. The gable projects over double tie-beams and facia board, all moulded, and is pargetted with an upper face and lower date of 1676. Three pargetted panels between windows feature a central bird and outer stylised leaf scrolls.

The rear south elevation is irregular in fenestration but comprises 2 gabled timber-framed and plastered units corresponding to the medieval form. A 19th-century stack in Tudor style sits over the hall unit, which has been expanded around the stack as a 2-storey gabled extension. Ground-floor windows include one sash of 3x4 panes, one casement of 2x2 panes, and one single fixed pane, along with a plain 20th-century door with 2 upper glazed panes. First-floor windows include one triple sash of 1x4, 3x4, and 1x4 panes, and one sash of 4x4 panes.

Interior: The original framing is largely obscured by 19th-century plastering. The hall contains an inserted floor, and the ground-floor central room has early 18th-century shallow recessed panelling and a bolection-moulded fireplace in a lateral stack on the rear wall. The spandrel boards of the rear cross-entry door survive, plain but with hollow chamfers to the 2-centred arch. The cut framing of the hall service division is partly visible. The solar cross-wing jetty joists have centre-tenoned jointing. Old stud and wattle groove marks suggest that the ground-floor hall's high-end wall was recessed under the cross-wing to create a canopy at the high end of the hall. The first floor is now plain except for part of the tie-beam and braces of a spere partition truss of the hall. The medieval framing is visible from the roof space, with crown-post roofs to both the hall and cross-wing. The high end of the hall shows upper multiple decorated arched bracing. The building is dated to circa 1350 according to Hewett's analysis.