Secretaries Farmhouse

SECRETARIES FARMHOUSE, WATER LANE

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1122849
Date first listed:
07-Aug-1952
List Entry Name:
Secretaries Farmhouse
Statutory Address:
SECRETARIES FARMHOUSE, WATER LANE

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Date:
2001-06-30
Reference:
IOE01/04811/23
Rights:
© Mr Frank Swift. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1122849
Date first listed:
07-Aug-1952
Date of most recent amendment:
12-Nov-1984
List Entry Name:
Secretaries Farmhouse
Statutory Address 1:
SECRETARIES FARMHOUSE, WATER LANE

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
SECRETARIES FARMHOUSE, WATER LANE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:
Essex
District:
Braintree (District Authority)
Parish:
Bures Hamlet
National Grid Reference:
TL 90454 34050

Details

BURES HAMLET WATER LANE TL 9034 (east side) 5/51 (36/154) Secretaries Farmhouse (formerly 7.8.52 listed as "Secretaries") GV II Water Lane is wrongly shown on the O.S. map as Brook Street. House. C14 with major alterations of the C18, and C19 extensions. Timber framed, facade of red brick in Flemish bond, roughcast elsewhere, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. Hall house, probably formerly aisled, facing S. One off-centre axial chimney stack of C16 origin, rebuilt in C18. External chimney stacks at each end, C18. Rear stair tower and closet wing, C18. Rear wings from each end, early C19. Single-storey lean-to extension beyond stair tower, mid C19. 2 storeys. Ground floor, 2 C19 french windows in original C18 apertures with flat brick arches, central half-glazed door with marginal lights, early C19, in C18 doorcase with reeded pilasters and broken pediment, with geometrical tracery in fanlight. First floor, 2 pairs of C18 sashes of 12 lights, central Venetian window. Band at first floor level. Wooden modillioned eaves cornice returned round side walls. Hipped gablet roof. The ground floor comprises a large central entrance hall and rooms to each side; fully plastered. One asymmetrical transverse beam in entrance hall, one axial beam in right end, both boxed in. The roof of the hall is of crownpost construction, the crownposts missing, the rafters and collars heavily smoke-blackened. Some panels of wattle and daub in roof. The stair has C18 twisted balusters, wide handrail and dado of pine, with minor restoration. The house is shown in perspective in a finely drawn estate map of 1796 by John Kingsbury, in the possession of the owner. The front is shown as at present, except that pairs of sashes occupied the positions of the present french windows, as on the first floor, the fanlight had radial tracery, and there were additional small windows each side of the door whose positions may still be identified as late C18 alterations in the brick facade, removed when the present entrance hall was formed. There was no wing to the right, and the left rear wing was shown as of one storey.

Listing NGR: TL9045434050

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:
114840
Legacy System:
LBS

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of Secretaries Farmhouse

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 16-Jun-2026 at 02:57:34.

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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