Details
MALDON TL8507SW HIGH STREET
574-1/7/91 (North East side)
02/10/51 No.73
Swan Hotel GV II* Public house and hotel. Late C14 with late C16 inserted floor
and early C19 rear extension. Timber-framed and pebbledashed
with gabled plain tile roofs. Complex plan form, basically a
hall house with 2 cross-wings and rear extensions on both
wings.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with cellar; 3-storey rear extension.
Front has 2 gables with hall range of original ridge height
but with narrow-span parallel front roof providing 2-storey
eaves height on frontage. The gables are of early C20
construction with barge-boards and applied timber-framing, the
roof of the north-west wing having machine-made tiles. The 1st
floor of this north-west wing has a 3-light early C20 casement
with square top light with square leaded panes. The 1st floor
of the south-east gable is a similar 4-light casement and
centre has pair of semicircular-headed French windows and side
lights of similar design. Painted timber balcony front in
centre of elevation, mounted on substantial timber posts. The
ground floor of both wings has early C19 three-light casement
as others. Canted bay under balcony with leaded upper lights
and all ground floor windows have etched glass. 2 similar
entrance doors, one with 2 and one with 3 stone steps and with
wrought-iron handrails with boot scrapers. Stack on rear wall
of main range appears above ridgeline.
The exposed north-west flank has two 1st-floor sash windows
with moulded surrounds, each with a single vertical glazing
bar. Ground floor has 2 similar windows and 2 recessed windows
with moulded architraves and a 2-light casement as front
elevation. The rear extension here is rendered with gabled
roof. This has one 2-light casement on 2nd floor and 2 sash
windows of 16 and 12 panes with moulded surrounds on 1st
floor. Ground floor is of rendered brick and has door with 2
steps and tripartite, recessed, small-paned sash. Rear of this
block has one sash with moulded surround on 3rd floor and C20
French windows to ground floor.
Courtyard elevation of this building has 8-paned fixed window
to 3rd floor and 2 sashes on 1st floor, one with 12 panes and
one with central vertical glazing bar. Between the 2 original
wings, the rear of the hall range has a C17 gable at
right-angles to main roof. Flat-roofed C20 extension to rear
of hall and 2-storey rendered part-painted brick extension to
rear of south-west wing with gabled roof.
INTERIOR: the front range represents late C14 timber-framed
building of some quality, clearly designed to occupy a
restricted urban site. The use of unjowled posts, double
pegging of floor joists and adorsed ogee mouldings is very
similar to front block of the Blue Boar Hotel, Silver Street
(qv), perhaps by the same carpenter.
The hall is of 2 bays with very narrow low-end bay and is
substantially complete above the inserted late C16 floor. The
latter is supported on a moulded impost and has chamfered
spine beam. In the rear (north-east) wall is a fireplace, one
flank of which has mixture of brick and reused C12 rubble.
Also in rear is door with 4-centred head which leads under a
'gallery' to the parlour in north-west wing.
The south-east cross-wing has an intruded cross-passage with
speres to the hall and formerly with contemporary hood over
front door. It is of 4 bays, the front 2 having original
service-door heads and much repaired studwork and wall
bracing. The front room for originally a shop and its original
arrangement of shop door, and large 'window' with low sill and
2 arch brackets at the head was revealed at recent renovation.
The 3rd bay from the front contained 2 staircases, one giving
access to a solar over the front 2 bays, and the other to a
1st-floor room at the rear which has a garderobe door opening,
with arched head, in its rear wall. The cross-passage
continued to the rear of this wing and its north-west flank
seems to have been open to a yard.
The north-west wing is of 3 bays and its southernmost bay
appears to have formed another shop. The parlour to its rear
had a pair of service-room-like spaces to the north. The
south-east flank, to the courtyard, incorporated a
purpose-built gallery, the tiny gabled roof of which survives
within a later roof. This seems to have provided a 1st-floor
access between a pre-existing building to the north and a
large chamber in the front 2 bays of this wing. This chamber
had a continuous band of windows on its front elevation and a
coupled arch-headed window on the exposed north-west flank. A
hole in the framing here also indicates the former presence of
a contemporary stack. Crown-post roofs survive substantially
complete over both wings; that to the solar of cross-quadrate
form. The cross-quadrate hall roof can now only be deduced
from the surviving mortice holes. Both important 1st-floor
chambers have moulded tie beams on substantial braces with
additional moulding orders pegged to their soffits.
HISTORY: in the early C19 a brick parapeted front was attached
to the building and the gables were removed in favour of hips.
An early C20 restoration replaced these features, in general
form rather than in particular detail.
(RCHME: Essex Central and South-west: London: 1921-: 176:2). Listing NGR: TL8517807020
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number:
464479
Legacy System:
LBS
Sources
Books and journals An Inventory of Essex Central and South West, (1921), 176
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
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