The Grove

The Grove, Saffron Walden

A house, now subdivided into two units, dating to 1840. The building combines timber-framed and plastered construction with red brick, ruddled and tuck-pointed, incorporating stuccoed detailing and a slate roof.

The plan is irregularly L-shaped, with a principal block oriented north-south and a set-back south wing positioned back-to-back with an older parallel range. A right-angle east-west wing of lesser proportion completes the composition. The building rises to two storeys with a basement.

The west-facing front elevation of the principal block displays a three-window range arranged at piano nobile level, approached by steps. A central doorway is flanked by ground-floor bay windows, which continue down to basement rooms. The first-floor windows feature moulded stuccoed architraves with a stuccoed string running between floors. The bay windows are crowned with dentilled cornices supported by diagonal consoles and fluted piers. The doorway is sheltered by a deeply projecting porch with a stuccoed dentilled cornice and pulvinated frieze, adorned with Ionic columns and inner pilasters. The plinth, piers, and basement walling are all stuccoed. The doorway itself has a semicircular over-light with ornamental glazing, and the door comprises an upper glazed panel with margin glazing bars and lower flush bead-moulded panels. All windows are horned sashes; ground and first-floor windows feature margin glazing bars, including return sashes to the bay windows. The roof is hipped with deep eaves and stacks at the north and south ends.

To the south, a set-back unit contains a single first-floor window with a moulded architrave. Below this stands a large nineteenth-century conservatory with a swept serpentine roof and four twentieth-century restoration continuous casement windows with glazing bars, each of 3 by 2 panes. Four stuccoed moulded recesses in the brickwork are positioned below.

The rear east elevation is complex, reflecting nineteenth-century additions and late twentieth-century raising of the ground floor to create a basement. The north principal range is timber-framed and pargetted, with some original work but predominantly twentieth-century restoration. A central piano nobile doorway is approached by twentieth-century metal steps. The nineteenth-century door features two upper round-headed glazed panels and lower flush panels with bead moulding. Adjacent to the north stands a nineteenth-century three-cant bay with fully glazed French window incorporating sash side cants; a guard rail now marks the extended basement, which includes a twentieth-century sash window below. South of the doorway is a nineteenth-century sash window with moulded architrave, glazing bars, and 3 by 4 panes. The first floor contains two nineteenth-century sash windows with moulded architraves, glazing bars, and 2 by 4 panes. Two semicircular-headed windows are also present—one serving the stair, the other small and positioned at the south end—both featuring upper radial glazing bars. The basement contains a twentieth-century door with upper glazing of 2 by 3 panes and two twentieth-century casement windows.

To the south, a nineteenth-century brick wing extends to the east with three first-floor Y-glazed Gothick lancet windows: one two-light and one long window with glazing bars of 4 by 2 panes. At the north end, two minor hipped additions flank the units; the lower addition has a twentieth-century door with upper glazing of 2 by 3 panes, behind which sits the rear brick wall and end stack of the front unit.

The north end elevation of the front brick unit is plain save for a string continued in brick from the front. The rear unit is set back and features a small nineteenth-century segmental-headed attic window. The first floor has a twentieth-century casement window of 2 by 3 panes, and twentieth-century lean-tos at ground level include a single twentieth-century casement window matching those above. The south end elevation of the principal block is plain. The south wing's first floor displays a nineteenth-century sash window of 3 by 4 panes, and twentieth-century shaped barge-boards trim the eaves. A twentieth-century ground-floor casement window sits below a brick string. The conservatory projects to the rear at the south, backed by brick walling with a brick and rendered brick base. The serpentine roof end was twentieth-century restored with multiple panes and wooden glazing bars.

The interior was entirely reorganised during the twentieth-century restoration and division into two units.