Freshwell House

Freshwell House

Freshwell Street, Saffron Walden

Formerly known as The Saffrons, this house dates from the mid-16th and early 17th centuries, with an 18th-century refronting and 19th-century refurbishment. It is built of timber-framing and plastered brick, with a peg-tiled and slate roof. The building is U-shaped in plan, with two storeys and attics.

The front east elevation presents an elegant 18th-century façade of red brick with three bays. The centre bay breaks forward with a pediment, and features a moulded wooden eaves cornice and hipped roof. The central wooden doorcase has a dentilled pediment and a "Gibbs" surround, with a five-panel door of which the upper two panes are glazed and the lower two are fielded panels. The outer bays have 19th-century tripartite sash windows with glazing bars (1x4, 3x4, 1x4 panes). The first floor has a central 3x4-paned sash window and outer tripartite windows of plain 19th-century design. Eighteenth-century dormer windows sit above each outer bay with hipped roofs, now fitted with 20th-century two-light casement windows of 2x2 panes. The ground floor also has four 20th-century inserted oval windows with leaded glazing in the central and north bays. At the north end is a two-storey lean-to of similar brickwork with burnt headers; its ground floor has a 20th-century two-light casement window with leaded glazing, and the first floor has an early 20th-century two-light iron casement window with similar glazing.

The rear west elevation is complex and all plastered. The street range has large lateral stacks at the north end. To the west are two wings. The north wing has a low gabled roof with a side stack, and a lower gabled wing to its west featuring 19th-century shaped and pierced bargeboards with two ground floor fixed windows of leaded glazing and wooden labels. The south wing is tall with two storeys and attics, with a half-hipped "M" roof with a stack visible in the central gully. The attic has two late 19th-century two-light casement windows. The first floor has two late 19th-century cross casement windows with labels. The ground floor has a simple doorway with an overlight and a four-panel door (three upper panes glazed), adjacent to a flat-roofed addition with a continuous four-light window with an upper transom of leaded glazed panels in a "frieze" pattern. The wings are linked by a wall with a slated lean-to and skylight.

The north end elevation faces onto a yard. The street range with its rear stack has a slated lean-to and a two-storey flat-roofed addition with a long first floor 20th-century four-light sliding sash window with leaded glazing. Below this is a segment-headed doorway now fitted with a 20th-century casement window. To the east is a simple ground floor lean-to with a 19th-century bead-moulded boarded door. To the west, the side stack to the taller rear range has its own gabled roof to the flanks with a 20th-century ground floor casement window of leaded glazing and a similar window on the first floor. The rear range has a tall 20th-century lead-glazed casement window. The lower west rear block shows remains of 19th-century pargetting, with a first floor two-light casement window of lead-glazed glass and label, a ground floor fixed single-light casement window, and a 19th-century bead-moulded boarded door with an upper light.

The south end elevation is timber-framed and plastered, with two storeys and three bays. The roof is hipped at the east end and half-hipped at the west. A central stack and early 19th-century doorway with a flat cornice hood and overlight feature a six-panel door (upper four panes glazed, lower two fielded). The fenestration is now irregular. The ground floor east end has an "Ipswich" window with leaded glazing and at the west end two 20th-century cross casement windows. The first floor has two similar windows, central and at the west end.

The interior has been much rebuilt in the 18th and late 19th centuries. The oldest work dates from the 16th century in the timber-framed north end rear wing, which comprises two units with tension-braced framing and jowled posts; the floor of the rear unit has been removed. The south wing is also timber-framed and was originally an early 17th-century two-storey building with attics, a two-celled lobby-entrance house facing south. The east ground floor room retains typical paired axial ceiling joists and early 17th-century wainscotting. The 18th-century street range was built to link the older units. The first floor central room has a panelled dado and panelled doors, a corner cupboard, and a wooden chimney-piece with an eared architrave contemporary with this phase. Nineteenth-century and early 20th-century work includes the staircase, designed in early 18th-century style, and a projecting rear ground floor room with a reeded doorway featuring paterae and a reeded dado framing that contains 17th-century wainscott panelling, probably derived from the early 17th-century wing.