Chapel Cottage is a Grade II listed building in the Braintree local planning authority area, England. First listed on 2 May 1953. A C16 Ancillary building.

Chapel Cottage

WRENN ID
errant-roof-briar
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Braintree
Constituency
Braintree MP: Sir James Cleverly (Con)
Country
England
Date first listed
2 May 1953
Type
Ancillary building
Address
Chapel Cottage, High Street, Great Bardfield
OS grid reference
TL 673 303
Coordinates
51.94626, 0.43417
Source
Historic England listing

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

Description

Chapel Cottage is an ancillary building of uncertain purpose, dating from the 16th century and altered in the 18th and 19th centuries. It features a mix of plastered brick and timber framing, with some areas weatherboarded, and is roofed with handmade red clay tiles. The building has two bays facing northwest and originally extended further to the southwest. To the left, there is a garage with a lean-to tiled roof. The structure stands two storeys high with attics.

On the ground floor, there is one two-light window with a roll-moulded wooden mullion and rectangular leaded panes, along with a group of three original windows made of plastered brick, featuring segmental-pointed heads, recessed spandrels, and vertical iron bars. The entrance has a plain boarded door, and there are no front windows on the first floor. Original sprockets are visible below the eaves.

The rear wall includes an original wooden doorway with a four-centred head and recessed spandrels. The right return wall has inserted timber framing clad with weatherboarding. Inside, the building boasts richly moulded transverse and axial beams. While it is believed to have been built by Serjeant William Bendlowes, the local tradition that it served as a chapel is historically dubious and not supported by the building's characteristics. It remains a possibility that it was constructed for some institutional purpose or as a dower house.

Local climate

Chapel Cottage sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 690 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 94% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 88% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 33 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 53% 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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  • No EPC on record for this property
  • Sale history — 8 transactions since 1995
  • 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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