Gainsford End Windmill is a Grade II listed building in the Braintree local planning authority area, England. First listed on 27 October 1988. A Victorian Windmill. 7 related planning applications.
Gainsford End Windmill
- WRENN ID
- hushed-span-rook
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Braintree
- Constituency
- Braintree MP: Sir James Cleverly (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 27 October 1988
- Type
- Windmill
- Address
- Gainsford End Windmill, Toppesfield
- OS grid reference
- TL 726 350
- Coordinates
- 51.98693, 0.5126
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
A corn windmill dating to 1869, as indicated by a tablet. The windmill is a red brick tower of circular plan, rising to five storeys. Segmental brick arches frame the openings. The ground floor features a boarded door and two windows with multiple panes of cast iron. The domed roof cap has been removed, although the wooden base frame remains. Inside, the first floor contains a cast-iron great spur wheel engaging three iron-mortise stone nuts. An iron bevel wheel located below the spur wheel engages bevels on two horizontal shafts with pulleys. Further interior features include three sets of tentering gear, one governor, three pairs of millstones on the second floor, and an iron shaft extending to a cast-iron wallower at the top.
Local climate
Gainsford End Windmill sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 700 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 90% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 77% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 32 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 58% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 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 2011
- Related listed building consents — 7 applications
- 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
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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