Listed buildings in Essex
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There are around 14,000 Listed buildings in Essex, which are buildings of architectural or historic interest.[1]
- Grade I buildings are of exceptional interest.
- Grade II* buildings are particularly important buildings of more than special interest.
- Grade II buildings are of special interest.
The characteristic buildings of Essex are its medieval churches and timber-framed houses. A typical church is small and built of relatively modest materials. It may have a 16th-century brick tower or porch, but more often features a timber belfry. There are about 10,000 timber-framed houses in Essex, more than one third of which date from the 14th century to the 17th century. In medieval towns and villages, hall houses typically stood parallel to the street and consisted of a single-storey open hall. An upper floor or a brick chimney was often added in the 16th century. These buildings may be plastered or have their structural timbers exposed. Over time, increasing pressure on space led to plots being subdivided, and house plans were rotated by 90 degrees so that buildings faced the street gable-end on. These houses were often built to two or three storeys, compared with the earlier predominantly one two-storey forms. Smaller houses are often weatherboarded, either painted white or—particularly near the coast—tarred. In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the long-wall jettied house was developed, characterised by a continuous first floor extending over the ground floor, with the jetty running along the entire street façade. Guildhalls erected by religious guilds were often timber-framed, long-wall jettied buildings, frequently located on the edge of churchyards. [2] Examples for old timber-framed buildings in Essex are:
- Greensted Church, Greensted-juxta-Ongar – an ancient wooden church, with timbers dated to around 1053
- The Barley Barn, Cressing Temple – a medieval barn built for the Knights Templar, with timbers felled around 1220
- Grange Barn, Coggeshall, Coggeshall – a large timber-framed tithe barn built in the 13th century
- Fyfield Hall, Fyfield – a timber-framed aisled manor house, with timbers felled between 1167 and 1185
- Harlowbury, Old Harlow – retaining roof timbers and other elements dating to the 13th and 14th centuries
Examples for long-wall jettied houses are:
- Cann Hall, Clacton-on-Sea – a circa 1512 timber-framed house built for St Osyth's Priory, timber-framed and plastered with a continuous jetty on the south front
- Moone Hall, Stambourne – a manorial jettied timber-framed house in Stambourne, Essex, dating from the late 15th/early 16th century with a long-wall jetty along the façade [3]
The lists follow Historic England’s geographical organisation, with entries grouped by county, local authority, and parish (civil and non-civil).
