61 And 63, Castle Street

Pair of houses on Castle Street, Saffron Walden. Dating from the 16th century with later additions, both buildings are timber-framed and plastered with peg-tiled roofs. They follow a T-shaped plan comprising a street range with rear lean-to and right-angle additions, rising to two storeys with cellars.

The front elevation (south-facing) presents a long jettied range, though the jetty of No.63 is now underbuilt. The first floor of No.61 is close-studded with exposed jetty joists and brackets. On the ground floor of No.61, a 20th-century 3-light casement window with glazing bars (6x3 panes) is set within a small 19th-century shop front featuring consoles and a simple hood, with boarding below the window and a raised cellar light on the pavement. A 19th-century boarded door with a simple hood on 20th-century brackets stands adjacent. A 19th-century window with moulded architrave and 20th-century restored sliding sashes (4x3 panes) completes this section. The first floor contains two similar 20th-century restored sliding sash windows (4x3 panes).

No.63's ground floor breaks forward to support the jetty, with 20th-century boarding over the jetty joist ends. A 20th-century triple sash window with glazing bars (2x4, 3x4, 1x4 panes) is accompanied by a simple doorway with a 20th-century boarded and battened door featuring an upper diamond-glazed light. Two 20th-century sash windows with glazing bars occupy the first floor. A stack constructed around 1700 in stretcher bond is visible behind the apex.

The east elevation is rendered throughout, with brick underbuilding beneath the jettied front protruding slightly. The rear lean-to displays a flatter roof pitch. Windows are irregular: the ground floor contains a 20th-century 3x4-paned casement, above which sits a 20th-century 2x2-paned casement; the first floor features a 2-light metal casement window centrally positioned below the roof apex, with a weathering protection board directly above. Wallplate horns project slightly below.

The rear (north) elevation is wholly covered by additions. No.61 has a 20th-century gabled two-storey wing with single casement windows on each floor (ground floor 4-light, 8x2 panes; first floor 3-light, 6x2 panes), and an adjacent doorway on the east side with a catslide roof and 20th-century upper glazed door. No.63 features an outshut with a 20th-century flat-roofed swept dormer window of 2 lights; below this is 20th-century panelled pargetting with a 20th-century back door featuring 2x3-paned upper glazing and three moulded lower panels.

Interior of No.61: The ground floor comprises two bays separated by step-stopped chamfered principal joists. The east end contains a framed wall stud with bracing. A central studded partition between east and west bays contains large peg holes for a medieval bench facing the hearth (to the east). Two medieval window mullions with multiple roll mouldings survive in position over the present street door head. The fireplace at the east end has been wholly rebuilt below with inglenook seating and timber mantel beam; above, brickwork is battered back with two crudely arch-headed keeping recesses. An old but not original doorway behind the stack leads towards No.63, possibly indicating the position of an old stairway. The first floor features a central tie-beam with arched braces and studding. The west end wall displays an open truss, with the exterior end wall of No.59 and the framing of No.61 visible; the latter apparently laid against a pre-existing structure. A stud in the west end frame adjacent to the stack contains a filled central groove, possibly from a wattle-and-daub chimney predating the present brick stack; the batter of the mantel beam and later brickwork above may follow the outline of a removed framed chimney. The cellar has been entirely 20th-century relined with illumination from a street light. Later work includes two 'Gothick' 2-centred arched doorways: one through the partition adjacent to the street door and one as a back door to the old street range.

No.61 appears to represent the upper end of a medieval house, with the parlour to the west and the upper bay of the hall to the east (containing the bench seat). A stack and possibly an earlier framed hood were inserted through the centre of the hall.