5 And 7, Bridge Street

Two houses on Bridge Street, Saffron Walden, dating from the late 15th century with a late 17th-century rear addition. Timber-framed construction, partly exposed and partly plastered, arranged in an L-plan across two storeys and an attic.

The eastern front elevation displays contrasting architectural character between the two properties. Number 5 occupies the southern section as a tall late 15th-century jettied range with a roll-moulded and embattled bressumer. The first-floor jetty displays closely set, irregular exposed studs with plaster infilling set well back, interrupted by two circa 1900 casement windows with twin roll-moulded architraves. The ground floor has three bracketed posts supporting the principal jetty with capitals decorated with pilasters; the brackets are hollow-chamfered, alongside one lesser bracketed joist. A central late 19th-century boarded door with vertical battens sits between two casement windows: the southern has two lights with 4x3 panes, the northern has three lights with 3x3 panes. Above the southern window is an original horizontal rail with studding that frames the original opening, with a later inserted rail above carrying simple boarding.

Number 7 occupies the northern portion as a smaller-scale gabled jettied block, partly tucked under the roof of Number 5, with plastered walls and some combed pargetting in the gable. The jetty has four plain curved brackets with horns rising from the wall plates above. A single 3-light casement window with horizontal glazing bar (3x2 panes) appears on both ground and first floors, with a circa 1900 architrave above, and a simple 2-panel door at street level.

The western rear elevation shows Number 5 with timber framing rendered in the 20th century. A central 20th-century stable door with upper light is flanked by a large over-light made from an old 3x3-paned sash window turned sideways. A large exposed 18th-century external red brick stack sits adjacent, though the house has been partly extended with its upper floor projected around the stack shaft, which emerges through the extended roof pitch. The ground floor, first floor, and an intermediate level have irregular 19th-century casement windows of varying sizes (2x2 panes, single pane, and 2-light 2x2 panes respectively).

Number 7's rear wing runs back from the street and narrows progressively, clearly added to the front block (which is considerably obscured by Number 9). A robust 18th-century red brick stack in header bond is visible on the northern flank wall with an adjacent plain 2-light casement window on the first floor and a 20th-century door on the western end wall with upper glazing and lower panel. The narrower rear block is timber-framed and dates from the 17th century, though it was restored in the 20th century and rendered.

The northern side elevation features a boarded door with an adjacent 20th-century 2-light casement, a pair of similar windows together under lifted eaves on the first floor. The western end elevation has a lean-to catslide weatherboarded on the southern side, with a simple door and adjacent 20th-century plain casement window.

Interior of Number 5: Heavy framing includes internal arched bracing nailed to studs. A well-preserved hall and service partition on the ground floor retains two late 15th-century decorative doorways intact, decorated with cyma and hollow-chamfer moulding, leaf and bud ornamentation on the spandrels. The service bay lacks studs facing the street and may originally have served as a medieval shop. A simple doorway aperture near the rear service doorway probably led to the original stair. The present timber-framed stair is projected behind the service bay as a clear later addition, with access cut through the late 15th-century frame; the long window framing as stair light is evident. The principal jettied floor and ceiling of the hall comprises one bay only, constructed with binding and bridging joists and flat-laid common joists with diminished haunched soffit tenons. An 18th-century rear lateral stack now has its fireplace rebuilt in the 20th century. On the first floor, the hall and service braced partition partly remains, with evidence of the original window to the street in the service bay (sill and shutter groove visible). The 20th-century attic features elegant wind-braced trapped side-purlin roof, with a plaster and wooden pigeon loft containing nesting boxes remaining under the eastern roof pitch.

Interior of Number 7: Framing is somewhat obscured, but a two-bayed earlier wing at the front is evident with a central open truss on the first floor. The rear weathered framing of this wing shows exterior tension brace seating (a second example also visible from the rear of Number 5). The principal framing of the rear addition is also visible.

Historical note: The abrupt change between the construction of Number 5 and Number 7 indicates two separate building campaigns. Number 7 is the oldest element, probably the cross-wing of an L-shaped hall-house. The rebuilding as a long jetty house apparently began from the service end and stopped at mid-hall length against the older cross-wing, with the probable intention of completing the high end later—a work that never took place.