Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Grade II* listed building in the Uttlesford local planning authority area, England. First listed on 20 February 1967. A Medieval Church.
Church of St Mary the Virgin
- WRENN ID
- fossil-lead-nightshade
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Uttlesford
- Constituency
- Harlow MP: Chris Vince (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 20 February 1967
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Medieval
- Address
- Church of St Mary the Virgin, Church Green, Little Hallingbury
- OS grid reference
- TL 503 174
- Coordinates
- 51.83564, 0.18043
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Grade II* listed building located in Little Hallingbury. The church features walls made of flint rubble, mixed with some tile and Roman brick. The roofs of the 12th century nave, 12th to 13th century chancel, 14th century porch, and 19th century vestry are covered with plain red tiles. The bell turret, rebuilt in the 19th century, has a timber-framed and plastered base topped with an octagonal shingle spire. The 19th century north aisle is clad in treated stainless steel, similar to that used on the Thomas Flood Barrage.
The south porch, constructed in the late 14th century, is made of timber and features unusual side tracery with squashed ogees and circles, along with original bargeboards on the gable. The south doorway, dating from the 12th century, is made of Roman brick with a tympanum infilled with rubble, supported by a crenellated and moulded beam. The 14th century door has four panels with cinquefoil heads.
Inside, the nave includes a modern north arcade. Of the three windows on the south wall, the easternmost is a 13th century lancet, while the other two show work from the 14th and 19th centuries. West of the south doorway is a blocked 12th century window made of Roman brick. The chancel walls may date from the same 12th century period as the nave but were lengthened or possibly rebuilt in the 13th century. It features an early 16th century roof with a moulded wall plate carved with running foliage, three main single hammerbeam frames, and shields. The common couples between the frames are braced to their collars, forming depressed arches, with the collars being weakly cranked.
The nave roof has a reconstructed octagonal crown post with a moulded base and capital, along with a 15th century moulded tie beam featuring curved braces and a wall plate. In the chancel, there is a 13th century piscina with stopped and moulded jambs and a trefoiled head, as well as a niche in the south wall with a moulded shelf and a spread trefoiled head topped with horizontal moulding.
Local climate
Church of St Mary the Virgin 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 95% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 91% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 52% 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
Sign in or create a free account to unlock:
- 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
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
Similar buildings
The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.
this building 1 similar nearby listed buildings