25 and 27, Church Street is a Grade I listed building in the Uttlesford local planning authority area, England. First listed on 28 November 1951. House. 1 related planning application.
25 and 27, Church Street
- WRENN ID
- winding-sentry-plover
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Uttlesford
- Constituency
- North West Essex MP: Mrs Kemi Badenoch (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 28 November 1951
- Type
- House
- Address
- 25 and 27, Church Street, Saffron Walden, CB10 1JW
- OS grid reference
- TL 537 385
- Coordinates
- 52.02426, 0.2402
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
A house and store dating back to the 14th century, with alterations and decoration in the 17th century and a restoration in the 19th. It was once part of the Sun Inn, which also included numbers 29 and 31 Church Street and 17 Market Hill. The building is timber-framed, with plastered and elaborately pargetted walls and a peg tile roof. It follows an "H" plan typical of hall houses, featuring jettied cross-wings.
The north-facing front was substantially reworked in the late 19th century, with new Tudor-style windows and doors. All windows are casements with intersecting cast-iron hexagonal latticed glazing bars. The roofs were re-raftered with side purlins and new barge-boards. The elaborate pargetting of the late 17th century includes bold figures such as volute scrolls, pecking birds, a stocking, and a pair of fighting men, purported to be the Wisbech Giant and Tom Hickathrift.
The east cross-wing and central hall each have a ground and first-floor window with three lights and cast-iron latticed panes, as does each cross-wing, which also has a boarded, battened, and studded door. The east cross-wing and hall have an upper floor raised in the 17th century to create a carriageway below; the carriageway has a two-leaved door that is framed and boarded with upper spikes.
The rear, south-facing elevation shows the hall and cross-wing units. There are two 19th-century stacks, one behind the hall range and another on the east side of the east cross-wing. Gable ends each have a single first-floor window. Windows on the west are double casements with four-by-two panes, while the east has a single casement with two-by-two panes. A 19th-century yellow brick lean-to with a slate roof extends from the ground floor of the hall and east cross-wing units. A segment-headed doorway leads to the carriageway, and a yard is located on the west side.
The interior is relatively plain, with little of the original medieval construction visible. In the roof space of the east cross-wing, a crown post features a splayed scarf joint on its collar purlin, and four-way braces that are lodged and nailed to the crown post, demonstrating a 14th-century construction technique.
Local climate
25 and 27, Church Street sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 700 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 91% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 80% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 53% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.4°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
Sign in or create a free account to unlock:
- No EPC on record for this property
- Sale history — 1 transaction since 2009
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
Similar buildings
The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.
this building 1 similar nearby listed buildings