20, 22 AND 24, CASTLE STREET

Nos 20, 22 and 24, Castle Street, Saffron Walden

This is a Grade II listed group of three buildings comprising Nos 20 and 22 (now merged as one property used as house and shop) and No. 24. The buildings form part of a series of conjoined timber-framed units dating from the mid-16th and 17th centuries, with an early 19th-century shopfront and early 20th-century refurbishment and restoration to the rear.

The buildings are timber-framed and plastered with some exposed timber framing and peg-tiled roofs. The plan forms a long curved range running to the corner with Museum Street, with a roughly central cross unit projecting at the rear in a T-shaped configuration. All buildings are of two storeys.

On the north elevation facing Castle Street, the buildings can be subdivided as follows. The westernmost unit (No. 20) is a short timber-framed unit with a 20th-century timber-framed lean-to porch having a boarded and battened door. Above this is exposed studding containing a mid-16th-century three-light mullioned window with roll and hollow mouldings to the mullions. This unit was originally a jettied cross-wing and retains upper jowled posts to the tie-beam, with a bull-nose jetty supported by an original inner framed wall now set forward flush with the front elevation and with the roof now fully hipped. The first floor has a two-light casement window with glazing bars (4x3 panes), and the ground floor has an early 20th-century applied ovolo-moulded three-light window with leaded lattice panes.

The central gabled unit has 20th-century rendering and 19th-century ornate cusped barge-boards. The ground floor contains a 20th-century bay window in early 19th-century style with a flat leaded roof, glazing bars and 5x4 panes with 1x4 panes to the return faces. The first floor has a two-light 20th-century casement window (4x2 panes).

To the east of the gabled unit (No. 22) is exposed framing with an uplifted roof ridge. The ground floor has an early 19th-century bow-fronted shop window on a brick plinth (7x4 panes with curved ends of 1x4 panes), with an adjacent early 19th-century door featuring thin glazing bars to the upper lights (2x2 panes) and three lower sunk panels. Above is a first floor three-light early 20th-century lattice-glazed window. The easternmost unit has plastered framing with a 20th-century boarded garage door at ground floor and an early 19th-century sash window with moulded architrave (3x4 panes) at first floor.

No. 24 is a single-window-range unit with a 20th-century boarded door and three-light casement window at ground floor, and a 19th-century three-light sliding sash window (now with leaded panes) at first floor.

The south elevation (rear) shows considerable 20th-century restoration with rendered framing and all features dating to the 20th century. The westernmost gabled unit has a ground floor French window with side lights (glazing bars, total 4x4 panes). A second gabled unit projects with an upper floor jetty. The ground floor has a three-light casement window (3x2 panes), with a similar two-light window (2x2 panes) at first floor. Between the units is a stepped stage with a first floor single-light casement window and a stack in the roof valley behind. To the east of the jettied block are two units stepped back, one with an outshut having a catslide roof and a two-light window (2x2 panes). The second unit has a boarded door and ground floor three-light window with glazing bars (6x3 panes). No. 24's rear is entirely 20th-century.

The interior is described west to east. The original cross-wing is two bays, enlarged by an extra bay at the rear in the 17th century. Original mid-16th-century front floor joisting is flat laid with step-stopped chamfers and diminished haunched soffit tenons. The original position of the lower jetty wall is clearly visible. The rear binding ceiling joist is ovolo-moulded with low-grade joists simply carrying a plastered 17th-century ceiling. Joists were replaced in the 20th century at the south end. The chimney stack on the east side was rebuilt but is of 17th-century origin. The street-facing gabled unit has remnants of open arched bracing on both floors with the top floor raised from window sill level. It may once have served as a carriageway to the castle bailey, with rear extension and old weathered framing now within the house.

The shop unit has early 17th-century ceiling joists of deep section bearing Roman numeral carpenters' marks. At first floor is late 16th-century curved interior tension bracing simply pegged to studs. The east end unit's ground floor has post-medieval primary bracing to the east and west ends, with heavy earlier rear framing now obscured by board lining at first floor. No. 24's ground floor was formerly a carriageway but was infilled in the 20th century; the first floor was also refurbished at that time.