The Close

The Close is a house located on the High Street in Saffron Walden, dating from the late 15th century to early 16th century. It features a timber-framed structure with exposed framing at the front and rendered walls at the rear, topped with gabled roofs covered in plain clay tiles. The building has two storeys and is designed in an 'L' plan form.

The front elevation consists of two sections: a formerly jettied cross-wing to the north and a jettied former hall/chamber range. The cross-wing includes a three-light leaded light casement window on the first floor, along with evidence of a former oriel window. The ground floor has been underbuilt and features a similar window. The southern part of the building has late 17th-century coved plaster eaves, with a four-light and a two-light leaded casement window. The ground floor here has a tall narrow similar window, an oval window with 'spider's web' leading, and a reused door that has an egg-and-dart architrave and a pulvinated frieze decorated with bay leaves.

A reused 15th-century post is visible in front of the framing, complete with an attached shaft and a crenellated capital. The northern flank of the cross-wing has two two-light leaded casement windows on the first floor, one of which retains remnants of an oriel sill, and a 12-paned double-hung sash window on the ground floor, which has been refaced in painted brickwork. There is a later pitched roof extension to the east of the cross-wing, with a 20th-century chimney stack at the rear and an earlier stack on the ridge line of the main block.

The exposed framing has undergone significant repairs, incorporating materials from other buildings. The cross-wing, dating from the late 15th or early 16th century, features an arch-braced side purlin roof and is currently two bays in size, having been truncated at the rear. The main block, from the 16th century, is open framed against the cross-wing and has a raised wall plate at the rear, with a dormer that includes a 17th-century iron casement with fittings and leaded lights. There are also many fragments of carved timber from other sources and a small stone arched fireplace. It is believed that there was once a further timber-framed structure to the south, which may have been a separate build, and it is thought that part of the building was converted to a chapel in the 16th century.