14, 16 AND 18, CHURCH STREET

A group of three houses at 14, 16, and 18 Church Street, Saffron Walden, originally dating to the 16th century, with substantial rebuilding in the 18th century and a refronting in the 19th century. The construction is a mix of timber framing, brick (gault and red), peg tiles, and slate roofs, with gault and red brick stacks.

The front elevation, facing south onto Church Street, is predominantly gault brick. Number 14 has a three-window range that is set back, featuring 3x4 pane sash windows around 1800 and a ground floor lean-to entrance porch constructed of red brick with boarded doors and narrow casement windows. A gault brick wall rises to the east, terminating at the house, with a 20th-century six-panel street door. The first floor has three similar sash windows, and a gault brick stack at the east end. To the east, a further four-window range is present, with brick voussoirs above the windows on the first floor and stone lintels at ground level. Number 16 projects forward from numbers 14 and 18, and has a central bay that similarly projects. It exhibits a three-window range with 3x4 pane sash windows and a central doorway beneath a flat hood topped with a restrained early 19th-century door case containing an eight-panelled door. The roof is peg-tiled, hipped at the west end, with three hipped dormer windows; the sides incorporated tile hanging and 2-light casements. A gault brick stack is present at the west end. Number 18 has a two-window range with windows similar to those in number 16, and a doorway with a simple lintel and a six-panelled door. A peg-tiled roof and a red brick stack complete the appearance.

The rear elevation, facing north, is of irregular red brick to the west (number 14), with some plastered timber framing; stuccoed brickwork is to the east (numbers 16 and 18). There are irregular segment-headed windows dating to the 19th century, with two on each floor and a passageway from the street on the ground floor. A 20th-century casement window and a battered buttress are also present. A cast-iron stanchion supports a cantilevered first floor with a large 19th-century tripartite sash window, and an original 3x4 pane sash window below, incorporating some old glass. A three-bay window spanning two floors is located to the east, with six plain-horned sashes, and a red brick stack behind the slate roof. There are two plastered, timber-framed units with red brick stacks and first-floor 19th-century windows. A 20th-century lean-to conservatory porch with a corrugated asbestos roof sits at the west end.

The interiors of numbers 16 and 18 retain some principal framing members from the 16th century, including cyma moulding in number 16. A staircase in number 16 features alternating barley-sugar and straight turned balusters, a shaped pine handrail, and panelled sides.