5 and 7, Castle Street

These are two houses, probably originally one building, located on Castle Street in Saffron Walden. The core of the building likely dates to an earlier period, but the visible structure is primarily from the 18th and 19th centuries, with later 20th-century alterations. The building is timber-framed, with plaster render, brick, and weatherboard cladding, and has a peg-tiled roof. The plan is L-shaped, incorporating early elements with 18th and 20th-century additions to the internal angle, and includes a cellar.

The front, or south, elevation consists of a gabled unit (No. 5) and a flush cross-wing (No. 7). No. 5’s gable is weatherboarded and has projecting bargeboards with prominent side purlins and brackets. It features a symmetrical two-window arrangement. The first floor has a two-light casement window with a chamfered frame and 2x3 panes. The ground floor has a three-light window with 3x3 panes. A simple doorway is accessed by a four-panelled door with glazed upper panels. No. 7, the street range, is irregular with a two-window arrangement and a central front doorway. A 19th-century four-panelled door with upper glazing leads into the property. To the west, there's a 18th-century sash window with a moulded architrave and 3x4 panes. To the east, a small bay window of three sliding sashes with 6x2 panes and a simple ramped leaded roof is situated. The first floor has two 19th-century two-light sliding sash windows, each with 2x2 panes. The rear, or north, elevation shows a peg-tiled street range and a projecting wing with ground-floor lean-tos under slate roofs, which extend as catslides. No. 7 has an 18th-century red brick stack, partially rendered, rising through the roof. A lean-to structure has traces of “fan combed” pargeting. Other features include two 20th-century casement windows, one metal framed, and a 20th-century lean-to with a red brick stack over a fully glazed door and a three-light casement window. The north end of the west gable is rebuilt with 20th-century Fletton brick, including a rebuilt gable and a concrete window lintel above a first-floor window. A boarded door leads to the cellar, and there’s a smaller casement window to the east. A 19th-century sash window with 3x4 panes is located above the concrete lintel, along with a smaller 20th-century metal casement. The west elevation displays a 20th-century rebuilt flank wall of the cross-wing (No. 5) using Fletton bricks, and a central 19th-century red brick stack at the roof apex. A segmental-headed 19th-century sash window with 3x4 panes is present.

The interior of No. 5 is largely of a mid-19th century style. No. 7 retains some slender 18th-century studding and some 19th-century interior dado boarding on the ground floor.