2-28, VILLAGE STREET (See details for further address information)

This is a row of houses, originally 2 to 28 Village Street, Audley End, but with subsequent renumbering and loss of numbers 24 to 28. The main portion of the buildings dates to the 18th century, although earlier fabric from the 16th and 17th centuries remains. In the 20th century, the buildings were amalgamated and renumbered.

The houses are timber-framed and plastered, with significant areas of early decorative plasterwork, known as pargeting, in basket and combed patterns; some of this has been renewed in the 20th century. The roofs are covered in peg tiles. The front, or east, elevation forms a continuous terrace that steps down in four sections to follow the sloping ground to the south. The houses are generally arranged as single or double units, each with a two-window front and a central boarded door, many of which have been replaced. They have one and a half storeys, with two gabled dormers on each unit, each dormer containing a sliding sash window with 4x3 panes of glazing. Shared end-gable stacks are present. Numbers 2 to 10 are in a street style; Number 2 is a double unit, now with only one stack, and features irregular window placement and a break in the roof line with a shared stack with Number 14. Numbers 12 to 16 also maintain the street style, with Number 14 being a double unit and Number 16 having two storeys and no dormers. Numbers 18 to 20 transition from one and a half to two storeys, with Number 20 being fully two storeys high. Number 22 is an end unit of three bays, with one and a half storeys and a single central dormer window. The rear, or west, elevation was originally similar to the front, but between numbers 12 and 4, there are several 20th-century flat-roofed ground-floor additions and broad, flat-roofed dormers. Number 2 has a rear 19th-century gabled wing. The north end elevation of Number 2 features 19th-century decorated bargeboards, similar to those found at the Post Office across the street.

Internal inspection of numbers 4, 6, 20, and 22 revealed interesting features. Numbers 4 and 6 display simple 17th and 18th-century timber framing. Number 20 contains earlier 17th-century features, including an axial ground floor ceiling joist with lamb's tongue chamfer stops. Number 22 is a medieval, four-bay open hall house with a crown-post roof. The central hall area has been rebuilt, but the partition frames at both ends of the hall survive, showing signs of soot from a previous fireplace. The north end bay at first floor is now ceiled, but a complete crown-post roof remains visible through a redundant rear window. Robust, flat-laid joists run axially in the south (service) bay. A large inserted 17th-century stack is located backing onto the site of a former cross-passage, with the present front and back doors marking its position.