Farmhouse at Cutting Hill Farm is a Grade II listed building in the East Hertfordshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 24 November 1966. Farmhouse. 1 related planning application.
Farmhouse at Cutting Hill Farm
- WRENN ID
- twisted-tallow-spring
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- East Hertfordshire
- Constituency
- North East Hertfordshire MP: Chris Hinchliff (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 24 November 1966
- Type
- Farmhouse
- Address
- Farmhouse at Cutting Hill Farm, Whempstead Road, Benington, SG2 7DJ
- OS grid reference
- TL 311 221
- Coordinates
- 51.88289, -0.09534
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Cutting Hill Farm is an early 16th-century open hall house that has undergone several alterations over the years. It was heightened and had floors added, along with a central chimney inserted in the mid-17th century. A two-storey porch and a rear stair turret were added later in the 17th century, and a north dairy wing was constructed in the late 17th century. The building was extended to the right in the mid-20th century and further beyond the dairy in the 1970s.
Originally, the farmhouse was a three-cell structure with an open hall flanked by bays of one and a half storeys, designated for a parlour on the south side and service on the north side. The house features a timber frame, with weatherboarding on the ground floor and pargetting above. It has a steep hipped roof covered in old red tiles. The layout consists of a long, two-storey, three-cell design with a central chimney and a lobby entry facing west. The red brick chimney is stepped on plan, and there is a smaller gable chimney on the north side. The south bay has been modified in the 20th century.
The entry now leads directly into the hall, located to the north of the chimney, which has a chamfered and ogee stopped cross-beam. There is an axial beam connecting the parlour on the south side of the chimney to the service room at the north end. The west front has five windows, including one in the porch, with a window inserted in an old doorway and a new door to the left.
Inside, the farmhouse retains old wall plates and principal posts at the northwest, northeast, and southeast corners of the hall. The open fireplace in the hall features a lintel with a pointed recess at the back. A winding staircase wraps around a square newel with a carved finial. The interior also includes old boarded doors with iron hinges and face-halved bladed scarf joints in the rear upper wall plate. The fireplace in the chamber above the parlour is said to have a three-centred chamfered stone surround. The property was referred to as Cutten Hill in a lease from 1702.
Local climate
Farmhouse at Cutting Hill Farm 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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- No EPC on record for this property
- 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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