31, Bridge Street

House at 31 Bridge Street, Saffron Walden

This is a 15th-century timber-framed house with a peg-tiled roof, later combined with No.33 in the late 16th century and separated again in the 20th century. The building is 2 storeys with an attic, arranged in an L-shaped plan comprising a principal block, a 20th-century rear lean-to, and a late 16th-century stair tower projecting to the west at the north end. A large rectangular stack is shared with No.33 at the north end.

The front elevation to the east shows a jettied first floor. The plasterwork on the first floor retains traces of ashlar lining. A brace rising from the south end of the first floor to the eaves plate of the adjoining house (No.29) demonstrates that the building forms the solar end unit of a Wealden open-hall house (together with Nos 27, 29 and 33). The ground floor is now set below street level due to alterations to the street gradient.

On the front elevation, a 19th-century 4-panelled door is positioned south to north, followed by a 20th-century 2-light casement window with leaded panes and a bay window of 2 front lights with glazing bars and 4x2 panes. A 18th-century window reconstructed in the 20th century with 2-lights and leaded panes is also present. The first floor has a 3-light casement window with leaded panes (outer casements 20th-century, centre one around 1800). The attic features a gabled, peg-tiled dormer window with 2 uneven casements: to the left, a narrow 20th-century casement; to the right, a broader casement with a decorative 17th-century latch plate. The stack has been rebuilt in the 20th century but retains its generally massive form.

The rear, west elevation shows a prominent gabled late 16th-century stair tower to the north rising to first floor height, with a 20th-century 2-light casement window with leaded panes at first floor. Traces of old panel pargetting are visible on the south side of the tower. The south section has a ground floor lean-to with a corrugated asbestos roof and a fully glazed central door flanked by glazed 20th-century windows forming 2 continuous pairs each side (2 lights each, 2x2 panes), with a frieze system extended southward by a shallower end window of 2 lights. First floor has 2 20th-century casement windows: one double (2x2 panes) and one single with leaded panes. The attic has a gabled, peg-tiled dormer with a 20th-century double leaded casement.

Interior

The interior has been considerably altered and infilled. The jetty joists are flat-laid with principals showing step-stopped chamfers; common joists are jointed by diminished haunched soffit tenons. The north end of the jetty floor has been disturbed and now runs into the large inserted stack.

The ground floor front contains a central rectangular stud-mullion and 6 soffit mortices for diamond mullions of a large 8-light 15th-century window, together with an associated shutter rebate. The first floor shows 3 similar soffit mortices at the rear, part of a 15th-century window with an associated shutter groove.

The attic space at the south end retains a remnant collar and cut collar purlin from the original crown-post roof, now entirely removed. Below this is a second late 16th-century collar with recesses for side purlins (now removed) from a replacement roof truss.

A massive late 16th-century stack runs through the north end of the house. The ground floor fireplace has rebuilt jambs with original thin bricks visible at the back. The first floor retains an undisturbed plastered 4-centred arched-head fireplace with simple chamfer and contains a cast-iron grate of around 1800 with vertical stripe decoration and medallion (a 'ducks nest' grate).

Behind the stack on the west flank, the contemporary stair tower displays framing and a roughly chamfered long central newel post with spiral mortices for original treads. The upper tread survives together with framing for the landing and a second newel post for the upper handrail.

Historical Development

The heavy, simple construction of the original build is similar to that of the entire original Wealden house (with Nos 27 and 29). In the late 16th century, the solar end bay was separated off to become the south end bay of a separate house (now No.33), which was given a large new principal stack and necessary rear stair tower. The existing curve of the road dictated a cranked front wall. Parallel horizontal rows of large-diameter peg-holes in the studs of the south wall at ground floor level may be warping pegs used in the weaving trade, probably dating to the 17th century.