The Grange And Garden Wall To Church Street

The Grange and Garden Wall to Church Street, Saffron Walden

Large house of early 19th-century date with some 19th-century alteration and addition. The structure is timber-framed and plastered, with brick and stone elements and a slated roof. The plan comprises two conjoined offset rectangles with a three-cant projection on the west side. The house rises to two storeys.

The north elevation, which faces Church Street, displays two stuccoed units. The western unit has a Tuscan doorcase with engaged columns and a flat cornice hood, with an overlight above and a six-panelled recessed door. Adjacent to this is a 3x4-paned sash window with thin glazing bars, with a similar window above on the first floor and a blind window recess beside it. The eastern unit is marked by a pedimented gable with a deep cornice and pilasters defined by incised lines. It contains a ground floor shallow bow window with paterae-decorated lintels and triple sashes (1x4, 3x4, 1x4 panes), repeated with a flush window on the second storey. A passageway links to the adjacent No.35. The roofs are hipped with deep eaves boards carried round the house. Central chimney stacks stand behind both units.

The south elevation rises to three storeys and comprises four bays. Three western bays break forward in red brick with a large stack at the apex of the roof hips. The eastern bay is timber-framed and rendered. The eastern bay has a slated lean-to porch constructed of re-used limestone ashlar blocks, with a 20th-century fully glazed door (3x5 panes) and simple upper side lights. Fenestration throughout is irregular, with all sashes in 3x4 panes. On the ground floor of the western bays stands an early 20th-century boarded door. First floor has one window and one blocked window recess. The second floor contains two outer windows and a central blocked window recess.

The east side elevation displays plastered timber framing across three storeys in a three-window range. All windows are 3x4-paned sashes with moulded architraves. The ground floor is irregular: from south to north, it contains a doorway with a cornice hood and six-panel door, a 20th-century two-light casement window set in a 19th-century frame, and a short slated brick lean-to. At the north and south ends stand tall round-headed triple-light windows of 19th-century character. The first floor has an additional small 20th-century casement window. A porch lean-to at the south end, constructed in ashlar, features a louvred half gable, a simple boarded door, and an adjacent three-light window.

The west elevation, which faces the garden, shows the principal block of two tall storeys with irregular fenestration due to alteration. A three-cant bay window extends through all three storeys at the south end, where the ground falls away. Most windows have stone lintels and sills with voussoirs incised and white-lined. The ground floor contains, from north to south, two simple horned sash windows with tiled sills, a French window with overlight (two-leaf 2x3-paned glazing in the lower panels), and a doorway with an overlight featuring decorative oval glazing bars and a six-panelled door with the upper two panels glazed. The first floor has two tall 3x6-paned sash windows and one blind window recess over the doorway, together with a half-height early 20th-century stair 'cross' window at the north end containing stained glass. The south end bay windows are largely 3x4-paned sashes, though the ground floor has a boarded door, one 2x3-paned window, and one blind window.

The interior reveals a central break running north to south between the eastern timber-framed unit and the western brick addition, evident in changes of level. The central stairway at the junction has a round-topped skylight with some stained glass. The stair features a shaped mahogany handrail with stick balusters. Major alteration is recorded as having taken place in 1837, when a large first-floor room on the west side was constructed with a marble fireplace and shuttered window; the shadow of an old exterior window remains visible within the house. A stairway in the early 20th-century northwest corner of the house is contemporary with the half-height window there. An old photograph documents a cast-iron verandah that formerly stood on the west garden side.

The garden wall is attached to the house and constructed of red brick, standing approximately 3.5 metres high on the west side fronting Church Street for approximately 34 metres, then turning south for approximately 44 metres. It features a half-height battered offset to the upper section with regular pilasters and a plain coping. The inner face contains secondary battered buttresses.