1, 3 and 5, Church Green is a Grade II listed building in the East Hertfordshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 24 November 1966. House. 1 related planning application.
1, 3 and 5, Church Green
- WRENN ID
- long-copper-ivy
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- East Hertfordshire
- Constituency
- North East Hertfordshire MP: Chris Hinchliff (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 24 November 1966
- Type
- House
- Address
- 1, 3 and 5, Church Green, Benington, SG2 7LH
- OS grid reference
- TL 298 236
- Coordinates
- 51.89595, -0.1145
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Nos 1, 3, and 5 Church Green is a house that has been divided into three separate homes. It dates back to the 16th century or earlier and is believed to have served as the parish priest's residence until 1636. The building features a two-bay extension from the late 16th century on the west side, and an early 17th-century gabled jettied crosswing on the east side, which has been divided into two houses. Number 5 was added at the west end in a matching style during the mid-19th century.
The upper floor of the eastern crosswing has exposed timber framing, while the rest of the structure is generally roughcast, with No 5 likely built of brick beneath the roughcast. The roofs are steep and covered with old red tiles, except for the outhouse wing at the rear of No 1, which has a corrugated sheet roof that replaced the original thatch. The overall layout is L-shaped and faces north, with the eastern crosswing being one and a half storeys high.
The oldest section in the middle is a three-bay structure with a hall in the two western bays, showcasing heavy timbering and tension bracing in the eastern bay (No 1). The hall has been floored in stages, featuring an early 17th-century chamfered axial beam in the middle bay with ogee and bar stops. A later floor and a lateral chimney project to the rear in the western bay. Although the roof has been raised, the old jowled bay posts remain. The heavy timbering in the western two-bay extension from the 16th century is well-finished and is also one and a half storeys high.
There is a framed opening over the tie-beam in the eastern gable, which may have served as an entrance for a ladder to the still open end-bay of the hall. The crossbeam supporting the upper floor has cut-off braces. A 19th-century internal gable chimney is located in the northwest corner of this wing, which features hollow chamfers on the tie beams, although the lower part may have been used as service rooms.
The 17th-century jettied eastern parlour wing consists of two bays, designed with one room on each floor and a large external rear gable chimney. It has close studding and a clasped-purlin roof. The building has an irregular frontage, with roofs stepping up from the middle. There are six flush casement windows and three boarded doors, along with a gabled dormer over the door to the middle part and two dormers to the right. The rear features five gabled dormers.
Local climate
1, 3 and 5, Church Green sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 86% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 78% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 35 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 57% 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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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- No sale records on file
- 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
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