Le Hurst Farmhouse is a Grade II listed building in the Braintree local planning authority area, England. First listed on 29 August 1984. Farmhouse.
Le Hurst Farmhouse
- WRENN ID
- slow-spindle-equinox
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Braintree
- Constituency
- Braintree MP: Sir James Cleverly (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 29 August 1984
- Type
- Farmhouse
- Address
- Le Hurst Farmhouse, Harrow Hill, Toppesfield
- OS grid reference
- TL 719 361
- Coordinates
- 51.99759, 0.50374
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Le Hurst Farmhouse is a house dating from around 1600, which has been altered in the 20th century. It is timber framed, plastered, and has a roof made of handmade red clay tiles. The house consists of four bays aligned from northwest to southeast, featuring an axial chimney stack located in the second bay from the southeast end, which creates a lobby entrance to the northeast. There is an original stair tower situated to the southwest of the stack. A one-bay extension was added to the northwest of the main range shortly after the initial construction. Additionally, there is a single-storey extension to the southwest of the southeast bay, which includes a chimney stack at the junction, dating from the 19th or 20th century. The farmhouse has two storeys and attics.
On the northeast elevation, there is a tiled hipped porch from the 20th century and a three-window range of 20th-century casements. The lower southeast room features two blocked original windows, each with two ovolo mullions, and a richly moulded axial beam with converging stops. Throughout the building, there are chamfered axial beams with lamb's tongue stops on both floors. The lower northwest room has chamfered joists with a horizontal section and lamb's tongue stops. The wallplates show face-halved and bladed scarfs. Inside, there is an octagonal stair post and an original rail, although the balusters are missing.
Local climate
Le Hurst Farmhouse 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.
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- 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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