Lower Farmhouse is a Grade II listed building in the South Cambridgeshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 11 April 1986. House.

Lower Farmhouse

WRENN ID
old-crypt-sunrise
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
South Cambridgeshire
Constituency
South Cambridgeshire MP: Pippa Heylings (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
11 April 1986
Type
House
Address
Lower Farmhouse, 117, High Street, Balsham
OS grid reference
TL 581 508
Coordinates
52.133, 0.30869
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Lower Farmhouse is a house dating from the 17th century, with some 19th-century alterations. It features a timber frame with wattle and daub infill, and is finished with plaster render. The building has a flint plinth and a modern tile roof with a red brick ridge stack. Originally, it had a three-bay layout with a lobby entry plan, and it stands two storeys high with an attic.

The house has two early 19th-century gable eaves dormers, which include bargeboarding and original casements with pointed top panes. There are two later 19th-century casements on the first floor and three on the ground floor. The doorway to the lobby is now fitted with a modern porch. An extension was added at the east end in the 19th century, which is built of clay bat on a brick plinth and has a tiled roof. This extension includes one similar casement on each storey.

At the rear, a rebuilt range incorporates an early 19th-century casement with pointed top panes. Inside, a passage was constructed through the chimney stack in the 19th century. The service bay at the west end features heavy ceiling joists laid flat and some moulded main beams. The roof has tenoned purlins in line, and the attic stair is original.

Local climate

Lower Farmhouse sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 87% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 73% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 33 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 54% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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