The Windmill is a Grade II listed building in the Braintree local planning authority area, England. First listed on 2 May 1953. Windmill. 1 related planning application.
The Windmill
- WRENN ID
- hushed-pier-gold
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Braintree
- Constituency
- Braintree MP: Sir James Cleverly (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 2 May 1953
- Type
- Windmill
- Address
- The Windmill, Duck End, Finchingfield
- OS grid reference
- TL 685 329
- Coordinates
- 51.96969, 0.45221
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Windmill is an early 18th-century post mill located on the east side of Duck End in Finchingsfield. It is timber framed and weatherboarded, with a roundhouse made of red brick. This small post mill was brought from another location and erected on a high mill mound before 1840, with the roundhouse added in that year. Originally, it featured four single-shuttered spring sails that revolved anti-clockwise on an all-wooden windshaft, a rare characteristic that remains dismantled. The mill drove one pair of stones directly from the brakewheel and had a tail pole to turn it into the wind. Inside the structure, there are many carved dates, the earliest of which is 1753. The Windmill belonged to the Spains Hall estate and last operated around 1890. After falling into disrepair, it was repaired by the Parish and again in 1958 by Essex County Council. As of August 1984, a major restoration program by Essex County Council had begun.
Local climate
The 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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- No EPC on record for this property
- Sale history — 1 transaction since 1996
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- 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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