Saint Mark'S College

Saint Mark's College, Saffron Walden

This is an almshouse complex built between 1605 and 1614 by Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, at the same time as Audley End House. Originally known as Abbey Farm and Almshouses, the buildings were restored and the chapel rebuilt between 1948 and 1951. The complex is constructed of small red bricks laid in wide-jointed English bond with peg-tiled roofs.

The buildings comprise one and one-and-a-half storeys arranged around a double rectangular courtyard plan. The kitchen, stairs hall and principal hall run in line between the two courts, with the chapel on the same axis projecting to the east. The western front elevation is essentially symmetrical, with single-storey ranges at the ends and a central block rising an extra half storey. Both northern and southern ends have façade gables with tall plain outer diagonal stacks that have ovolo-moulded base cornices. This stack form is uniform throughout the building. The whole façade is unified by a plinth and bold brick ovolo-moulded cornice at first-floor eaves level, with a similar cornice at the upper eaves of the central block.

All windows in the building comprise narrow single, double or triple round-headed lights that are chamfered. They now contain 20th-century diamond leaded panes in old iron casements, some with stay hooks or friction quadrant stays. The ground-floor porches have inner boarded doors with moulded and studded battens. The outer windows beneath the gables contain twin lights, whilst the central window has triple lights, with seven additional windows across the range of either single or double form. On the first floor, the northern end has a double-light window in the gable, whilst the southern gable is blank. The central block has a central façade gable with triple lights positioned above those below, and two dormer gables to the north and one to the south, all with twin lights. The centre window and those on the north side are dropped through the ovolo cornice and appear to have been deepened as an alteration. The single and inner paired stacks at each end have been somewhat rebuilt, with grouped triple stacks positioned centrally behind the roof apex.

The eastern rear elevation is similar in style to the front, with a single-storey range having plinth and cornice, though there is some rebuilding at the southern end. The chapel projects centrally to the east with blocked four-centred arched doorways on each side that once led to the courts. The blocking of each doorway has a 20th-century rectangular double casement window. The range has eight windows with single or paired lights, plus one 20th-century rectangular double casement at each end. There are six stacks in the building style—one at each end and one on each side of the blocked doorways—with some rebuilding evident. A single 20th-century dormer window in the southern range has a peg-tiled roof and lattice glazed double casement.

The chapel is of 20th-century construction built on old foundations, using similar bricks to the rest of the complex, with corner pilaster buttresses at the eastern ends and a peg-tiled gabled roof. The northern and southern sides each have a large brick-built multi-light window in the building style of four lights by three lights. The eastern window has rectangular wooden framing with hollow chamfered mullions and transoms, comprising five lights by three lights with diamond latticing and included scattered fragments of late medieval stained glass.

The southern elevation is uniform and single-storey, with blank terminal and central façade gables. Windows are symmetrically arranged in a pattern of double-single-double repeated three times along the range. Terminal and paired stacks flank the central gable, with outer stacks taller than inner ones; some rebuilding of stacks is evident. The northern elevation has been somewhat rebuilt and is irregular. The eastern section is rebuilt in 18th-century red brickwork in Flemish bond with some burnt headers. The centre of the range has later brickwork apparently infilling two doorways (shown by straight joints), and an arch-headed window within one consequently shows signs of not being original. The end gables are blank but show signs of a blocked window at the western end. The outer terminal stacks and a stack with paired shafts have been rebuilt.

The two rectangular courtyards have elevations similar to the exterior with plinth and ovolo cornice. The centre range rises one and a half storeys. Each courtyard now has seven four-centred arched doorways with boarded and battened doors leading to individual tenements. A central cast-iron pump stands in each courtyard. Four-centred arched entry doorways on the western sides open centrally, whilst similar doorways on the eastern sides are blocked with 20th-century rectangular two-light casement windows.

The northern courtyard has single and twin-light windows on the northern, eastern and western sides, with three additional blocked four-centred arched doorways on the northern side. The southern elevation facing communal rooms has three triple-light windows and one double window, together with one central upper double window and two blocked doors. The southern side also has two dormers with triple casements, and the western side has a single double casement dormer. The southern courtyard is similar to the northern, with single and double light windows. The northern elevation facing communal rooms has two external stacks (to the hall and ante-room) with double shafts. Large south-facing windows include one at the eastern end of four lights and two at the western end (kitchen) of paired upper and lower lights of four lights each. A central triple window between the stacks served the hall and once had upper lights as well, now blocked but revealing the hall to have a ceiling inserted that was originally full height. Two additional blocked doors appear in the southern side. A dormer window in the western range has double casements, and three similar dormers in the northern range, one of which has three lights.

The interior includes fireplaces set diagonally in the room corners of the tenements. They are chamfered with arched heads and are now plastered and painted. The kitchen fireplace, which is transverse to the range, is large with a four-centred arch and retains a 17th-century wooden surround (possibly relocated from Audley End House) that is cut down to fit, featuring bold carved heads, swags and cartouches with remains of paint. The fireplace has an old quadrant chimney crane and an elaborate grate dating to around 1800. Lamb's tongue chamfered stops appear on the stair hall and principal hall joists, and a fragment of wind-braced clasped side purlin roof survives at the western end of the central block of the western front, consistent with the 17th-century date of construction and the subsequent division of the hall.

The rebuilt chapel retains one original early 17th-century hammer beam truss, which has been restored, and a second truss to the east built in imitation. The hammer beam has a cornice with a spandrel over containing a pair of balusters with shaped upper rail, a half baluster to the inner post face, pendants below and at the collar centre. When 20th-century rebuilding and renovation took place, fragments of reused medieval glass were removed from various windows throughout the college, particularly from the kitchen and the southwestern tenement of the northern courtyard, and were reset within the chapel window. A fragment depicting the Virgin and Child is particularly noteworthy. Other stained glass fragments remain in the windows of the hall, stair hall and kitchen.

The college's plan of two courts separated by the hall and chapel can be paralleled in the contemporary Wadham College, Oxford. The buildings were originally almshouses used mainly for estate workers. Following restoration in 1948 to 1951, they housed retired clergy. As of 1992, the complex was vacant and awaiting new use.