9, Common Hill

This is a house located at 9 Common Hill in Saffron Walden. It has an early 17th-century core, with a front that was remodeled in the 18th century and rear lean-tos added in the early 19th and 20th centuries. The structure is timber-framed and plastered, showing some traces of ashlar lining, and has a clay tiled roof, along with sections of corrugated asbestos cement. The house has an L-shaped plan and consists of two storeys, an attic, and a cellar.

The front elevation features three windows and a half-hipped mansard roof with shallow raking dormers. The chimney stack is positioned off-centre to the south. The ground and first floor windows are 19th-century, two-light casements with moulded architraves, glazing bars, and 4x4 panes. The dormers have similar windows, but with 20th-century 4x3 panes. At the southern end, there is a doorway with a simple hood supported by console brackets, leading to a 20th-century flush bead moulded boarded door. Below the windows, there are hinged cellar shutters. At the northern end, there is a carriageway that is part of No.10, featuring a flat head, 19th-century cast-iron corner braces, and two-leaf boarded doors, one of which has a wicket.

The rear west elevation mainly consists of an early 19th-century timber-framed single-storey lean-to, with a roof that slopes down from the high eaves of the house, covered in corrugated asbestos cement and plastic sheeting. It has two early 20th-century casement windows, one and two-light, and a 20th-century rear addition at the northern end with a felted roof and a two-panel door, the upper panel being glazed.

Inside, the principal outer 17th-century framing members can be seen on the first floor, although they have been refurbished in the 20th century. The cellar walls are constructed of flint cobble and brick, featuring a central dividing wall with an arched connecting opening and blind arches around the outer walls. The early 19th-century rear lean-to has two tie-beams crossing the central area.