1-7, Village Street

This is a group of buildings comprising a post office, shop, and houses, located on Village Street, Audley End. The buildings date primarily to the 19th century, with a 20th-century amalgamation and renumbering – numbers 9 and 11 no longer exist. The construction is of red brick with a peg-tiled roof, and decorative shaped bargeboards are found on the north gable ends.

The west elevation, facing the street and running north to south, presents a mixed appearance. Number 1 features a 20th-century door with upper glazing, three casement windows with glazing bars (one with an original segment head), a three-cant bay window with glazing bars, two 20th-century boarded doors (one with upper glazing and three lower panels), and a post office section. Number 3 has a one-and-a-half-story range with a two-story cross-wing at the south end. The lower portion is red brick, while the upper portion is plastered timber framing, exhibiting remnants of early basket pargetting. A central stack is positioned along the street range, and a smaller stack sits at the internal angle of the blocks. The ground floor showcases two hip-roofed canted bay windows, a two-pane shop window, and a door with two upper glazed panels. Dormer windows are situated above, with two featuring double casements and glazing bars (2x4 panes), and one being of 20th-century design. The cross-wing is timber-framed and plastered, with upper and lower sliding sash windows. The building line projects forward. Numbers 5 and 7 are both two-story buildings, in timber framing and plaster. Number 5 has three windows with mainly sliding sashes, while Number 7 features four window bays, all with sliding sashes. Both have boarded street doors, with a central stack to Number 5 and a south-end gable stack to Number 7, which integrates with a 20th-century end-elevation lean-to. Number 7 also has examples of early basket pargetting. The rear, east elevation is similar to the front, though Number 5 has a 20th-century gabled single-story addition, and Number 7 has an old, timber-framed, gabled rear wing with a pantiled lean-to.

The interiors of numbers 1 and 3 contain a 16th-century hall with a large, sooted smoke bay around the site of an early 17th-century inserted stack. Original features include roll-moulded floor joists jointed to binding-joist/head beam, a roll-in-hollow moulded wall plate, and an embattled rail. The roof over the hall exhibits an elegant wind braced side purlin form spanning two bays. A unique post and braced tie-beam truss with deep arched braces and upper curved braces can be found on the rear north cross wall of the smoke bay, originally a display feature. Later in the 16th century, this end was converted into a smoke bay by partially in-filling the hall. Remnants of two bays with a crown-post roof (service end) remain behind paired bay windows to the north. The cross-wing retains side purlins on the façade, though most early features have been removed.