Three Colts Inn (EHER 36511)

18th century timber-framed house.

18th century timber-framed and plastered house with some weather-boarding in the gables and brick faced on the ground storey (painted). It is two storeys, with a three window range of 20th century casements on the upper storey and double-hung sashes with glazing bars on the ground storey. The outer windows on the ground storey are canted bays. A single storey addition extends at the north-east end. The roofs are tiled. At the south-west end there is a large end external chimney stack. <1> April 2017. Heritage statement. The Three Colts ceased to operate as a pub in 2007, and since then the building has been unoccupied and boarded up. It is now in poor condition, and is included in Uttlesford District Council’s Buildings at Risk Register. In 2016 planning permission and listed building consent were granted for a scheme of residential conversion, but an application to develop within the curtilage was refused. The planning officer’s report considered that 'new-build housing could be erected in the grounds of the public house without causing significant harm to its setting' but that the proposed layout, design, massing and scale were inappropriate, resulting in harm to the setting of the listed building. The former Three Colts Inn is of high evidential and historical value as a late example of a timber-framed building, built in about 1764 as a coaching inn on a stretch of the turnpike road to Newmarket. To some extent its evidential value has been compromised by later alterations and additions, the removal of historic curtilage buildings, later encroaching development, and by the fact that the road is no longer a principle route between London and Cambridge. The aesthetic value of the building is compromised by its current state and immediate setting, but these are capable of being resolved or (in the case of the setting) improved. The curtilage currently consists of a fenced-off former car park and grassed area, surrounded by undistinguished modern development, including a filling station and engineering works to the south. Overall the aesthetic value of the setting is currently low, and there is certainly scope for enhancement. However, the communal value of the building remains high; although use as a pub ceased a decade ago, this historic use continues to figure in local collective experience and memory. <2>