34 and 36, Water Lane is a Grade II listed building in the Braintree local planning authority area, England. First listed on 20 August 1991. A C17 Cottages.
34 and 36, Water Lane
- WRENN ID
- little-gable-bone
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Braintree
- Constituency
- Braintree MP: Sir James Cleverly (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 20 August 1991
- Type
- Cottages
- Address
- 34 and 36, Water Lane, Bures Hamlet
- OS grid reference
- TL 903 340
- Coordinates
- 51.97252, 0.76938
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
No. 34 and 36 Water Lane are a pair of cottages dating from the 17th century, with a 19th-century extension and a fragment from the 16th century. They are timber framed with a painted brick facade, while the other walls are rendered. The south side of the roof is covered in handmade clay plain tiles, and the north side is in slate. There are two axial brick stacks, and each cottage has a single bay. They share a stack with winding stairs located on the south side. The 19th-century rear extension includes a kitchen on the ground floor and a bedroom above, featuring 20th-century casement windows and two 20th-century doors.
On the west gable end of No. 36, there is a bricked-in fireplace opening that retains its original mantel beams with stop chamfer moulding and brick jambs. A section of cross frame with swept jowls to the posts, tie beams, and a cut-off wall plate also remains. The stack has been adapted to serve No. 36 but is a remnant of an earlier timber-framed house that was demolished in the 20th century, against which No. 34 and 36 were built. The rear roof has a much shallower pitch than the front to accommodate the rear addition, and the entire roof was likely raised in the 19th century.
The interior of No. 36 features a chamfered spine beam with a drawn-out stop, vertical section joists, and exposed studwork on the party wall. There is a 17th-century fireplace opening with a chamfered mantel beam, and an adjoining cupboard has strap hinges. The upper floors have 12-inch wide oak floorboards. Water Lane is incorrectly shown as Brook Street on the Ordnance Survey map.
Local climate
34 and 36, Water Lane sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 680 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 99% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 71% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 26 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 72% of listed buildings. Of these, 13 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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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- Sale history — 3 transactions since 1998
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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