45 And 47, Castle Street

SAFFRON WALDEN

TL5338 CASTLE STREET 669-1/1/73 (North side) 28/11/51 Nos.45 AND 47

GV II*

House, now 2 units. Late C15. Timber-framed and plastered, peg-tiled roof, red brick stack. Plan U shaped, principal block with later rear addition. 2 storeys. S front elevation: continuous jetty linked to jetties of houses each side, 2 jetty brackets. 2 simple flush panelled street doors in simple frames set to outer ends of facade. 2 ground and 2 first floor windows, with moulded architraves, horned sashes with glazing bars, 3x4 panes. Last remnants of pargetting remain on No.45. Central stack set within front roof pitch. Rear: simple ground floor addition to No.45 at right angles to house with single pitch slated roof. No.47 has full width L plan slated lean-to with first floor window of house partly clasped by added roof pitch - window of 2 casements, one still with leaded panes, other now of 3 simple panes. First floor window of No.45 has 3 lights, casements with single glazing bar, in all 6 panes. INTERIOR: No.47. Heavy ground floor ceiling joists have central tenons with housed shoulders. Rear stair trap with associated 3-light window mullion mortices and shutter groove. Secondary stair trap at front of ceiling. First floor, original windows back and front indicated by shutter grooves. Edge halved and bridled scarf joint in rear wall plate. E end wall not as closed frame but house butted against No.49 (qv) with simple arched braced tie-beam on first floor. Simple crown post roof, plaster partitioned in central bay round site of later stack. Sooting of central bay indicates site of original open hall. Existing evidence shows that the continuous jetty is secondary and that the house was of `Wealden' form with continuous eave and recessed, short, single bay length hall. Roof construction is contiguous with Nos 41 & 43 (qv), also Wealden houses, and the roof divisions imply that the juction of the 2 units was originally within No.43. If so, No.45 was large enough to be a full, storeyed end bay. The cross-entry passage was probably undershot within the original storeyed bay of No.47. The butting of No.47 against No.49 (qv) implies that the whole run, Nos 47 to 41 is of one build, later in date than Nos 49 to 51 (also a Wealden house). (Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Ratcliffe E: Essex: London: 1965-: 337).

Listing NGR: TL5370438693