Saxonden

A farmhouse, now a house, likely dating from the 15th or early 16th century, with an early 17th-century wing and subsequent alterations. The building is timber framed with rendered infill and has a plain tile roof. It comprises an open hall of two roughly equal-length timber-framed bays, with a storeyed end bay to the left. The right end bay was rebuilt in the early 17th century as a cross-wing, flush with the main range both at the front and rear. The house has two storeys and a garret, standing on a stone plinth.

The front elevation of the main range features close-studded framing. The cross-wing is close-studded to the ground floor of the front elevation and the long right side, with two square panels framing each storey above. Both floors of the rear gable end are also framed in square panels. Tension braces are visible to the left end bay and the right hall bay. The first floor of the wing juts out towards the front, supported by a bracket on the right end. A gable above the jetty has end brackets and a coved plastered soffit. The wing has higher eaves and a lower ridge than the main range, with the eaves continuing to the left on a principal post jowled towards the main range. The main range's roof is half-hipped to the left. A projecting red and grey brick stack is found to the left gable end, while a multiple red brick stack is situated to the right end of the right hall bay.

The fenestration is irregular, featuring four leaded casements; one with a pegged cill in the centre of the left-end bay, a four-light casement to the left hall bay set between a pair of posts which rise through the eaves with a lean-to roof, likely relating to an early 17th century or earlier bay window, a two-light casement to the right hall bay, and a three-light casement to the first floor of the wing. The ground and first-floor windows of the wing are each set between studs relating to an original window. A three-light ovolo-moulded mullion window is on the right side of the wing. A blocked doorway sits below the stack. There is a rear door.

A red and grey brick lean-to, in English bond, extends to the rear of the hall.

Internally, exposed framing is visible. The left ground-floor room has broad axial joists, mortised for an axial partition, and a trimmer for a stairwell against a partition with the hall. A moulded beam at the left end of the hall has a soffit groove morticed to suggest a former plank and-muntin partition. A plain beam, morticed for the central pair of doorheads, is located at the right end of the hall. Tension braces are on the right end-of-hall partition on the first floor. The central truss posts are chamfered and morticed for solid-spandrel braces, with chamfer-stopped gunstock jowls. A moulded crown post is present. Two broadly-chamfered axial beams, a tenoned cross-beam, and bevelled joists are found on the inserted hall floor. An inglenook fireplace has chamfered stone jambs with roll-moulded stops, and a chamfered bressumer. The cross-wing’s ground floor has higher ceilings, with two chamfered axial beams. The roof of the wing is supported by a clasped-purlin structure, with diminishing principal rafters and vertical queen struts to the collars.