Highlights of Heritage Sites Listed in the East of England in 2021

38 historic places in the East of England have been added to the National Heritage List for England during 2021. As the year draws to a close, Historic England celebrates the sites that have gained protection.

Mud Walls, Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire - listed at Grade II

Despite their location in the East of England, the mud walls of Whittlesey were built in line with the ‘cob’ tradition of the South West of England, in which earth is bound with straw and mixed with water to create building material.

They were shaped in stages over several months. Mud walling in Whittlesey is thought to date to the 18th and 19th centuries when the government imposed a tax on brick and tile. The tax was intended to help pay off debts incurred during the American War of Independence (1775 to 1783) but remained in place for decades.

Many properties in Whittlesey at the time had long garden plots, which occupants used to grow goods for the town’s market. Property boundaries were important – increasingly so in the period of land enclosure in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Mud walls were an innovative and inexpensive solution. The walls were formed of high-quality clay available from land reclamation in the Fens and then topped with a more durable material.

Across the town, walls have some variation: in height, in material used for the plinth at the base (brick or stone) and in the ‘coping’ (thatch, curved clay tiles or wooden boards) on the top. They were still being built during the 19th century, but over the decades many have been lost, as plots were sub-divided, or they were replaced with quick-to-install modern fencing.

The five newly-listed sections of wall:

• 5 Delph Street
• 9 to 13 Horsegate
• Wall between Wades Yard and 14 Horsegate
• Wall between Whittlesey Conservative Club and 36 Whitmore Street
• Old Crown Lane

They join two already listed sections (to the rear of the Black Bull Inn, and at 4 West End) to illustrate local craft skills and creativity in response to a specific set of economic challenges.

The Dome, Mildenhall, Suffolk - listed at Grade II

The Dome is a sports hall built in 1977 using the highly innovative Bini system.

The system was invented in 1963 by Italian architect Dante Bini who saw in it a means of achieving economy and speed in construction.

In short, the system works by covering a giant neoprene membrane with concrete and inflating it. The membrane is kept inflated for 60 hours to allow the concrete to set, after which windows and doors are cut into the structure.

The rights to the system in Britain were taken by NorWest Holst Construction, naming the system ‘parashell’ for the domestic market. The company built just three domes, only two of which now survive.

The only other surviving parashell building is the Edinburgh Dome at Malvern Girls College, also built in 1977. The Mildenhall Dome is more utilitarian in nature and was completed on a tighter budget, though it does feature some additional experimentation and innovation – in the construction of the ‘ventilation cowl’ (chimney covering) at the crown of the dome.

Unidentified Wreck: Thames Estuary, off Essex - scheduled monument

The unidentified wreck in the Thames Estuary (known as WA08) is an exceptionally well preserved, partially intact wooden sailing ship, up to 38 metres long and some 9 metres wide.

It was probably constructed, and lost at sea, sometime between the mid-19^th to early 20^th century. Evidence suggests that the ship was three-masted and when it sank was carrying a cargo of roofing slates which remain in situ. The cargo was initially thought to be Welsh slate, but analysis has shown it to be Cornish in origin and cut sometime after 1880.

While mid- to late-19th century wooden cargo ships were once a common sight around the English coast, very few survive in the clearly recognisable form of the Thames Estuary wreck.

The wreck is currently unidentified. The closest known record in time, date, cargo and location is Myvanwy, a three-masted schooner which ran aground on West Barrow Sand at 0400 on 21 May 1904. The Myvanwy was built in Newport in 1870 and was bound for Woolwich from Antwerp with a cargo of slate. The ship was described as a total wreck and some of her cargo was salvaged.

Cast iron water pump and stone basin outside Heath Cottages, Layer-de-la-Haye, Colchester - Grade II listed

The cast iron water pump and stone water basin has survived in its original location outside Heath Cottages since it was positioned there sometime between 1890 and 1924.

Created in an elegant design, it features a fluted cast iron column with a decorative dome. The water pump is decorated with a lion rampant, the maker’s mark of Joseph Evans and Son of Wolverhampton, who made huge numbers of cast iron pumps to be placed around the country.

The water pump is a striking reminder of how people lived before running water was available in their houses. For centuries, water for domestic and agricultural use was drawn from wells. By the 19th century, water was typically pumped up in areas of urban expansion, but many villages did not get water pumps until the late 19th century and then depended on pump water until well into the 20th century.

K6 telephone kiosk, Grove Lane, St Peter's Terrace, Cambridge

The K6 telephone kiosk was designed by celebrated British architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960), noted for his work on the Anglican Cathedral of Liverpool, Battersea Power Station, Cambridge University Library and the New Bodleian Library Oxford.

It was created in 1935 for the General Post Office, on the occasion of King George V’s Silver Jubilee.

An instantly recognisable design, the K6 was a streamlined and compact development of his highly successful K2 telephone kiosk of 1924. Over 70,000 K6 telephone kiosks were produced. While they were later replaced by plainer kiosk types, they remain an iconic feature on Britain’s streetscapes.

The K6 telephone kiosk on Grove Lane bears the motif of the crown with ‘ER’ dating it to or after 1952 when Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne.

Located in the Cambridge Historic Core Central Conservation Area,  it is surrounded by more than 20 listed buildings and structures on all sides, including, listed at Grade II, a 17th-century timber-frame house, a row of early 19th-century houses, a group of ‘Richardson candles’ bespoke lamp posts and, listed at Grade II*, the Judge Business School.

Milestone and milepost standing on the south side of Rowley Hill, Essex - Grade II listed

This late 18th-century milestone and early 19th-century milepost stand side-by-side on the south of Rowley Hill in Sturmer, Essex. Together, they illustrate the use of first- and second-generation distance markers along the development of the turnpike road system in Essex.

England's first turnpike road – levying tolls on travellers to finance the maintenance and improvement of highways – was established in 1663 when Parliament authorised the erection of toll gates (turnpikes) along a section of the old Roman road Ermine Street (now the Great North Road) between Wadesmill in Hertfordshire and Stilton in Huntingdonshire.

The main period of growth for turnpikes was the 18th century. In Essex around 14 Turnpike Acts were passed between 1702 and 1836.

Milestones accompanied turnpike roads and from 1773, with the passing of the General Turnpike Act, it was obligatory to put mileage on them. It is thought that the Sturmer milestone dates to the late 18th century.

New cast iron mileposts were installed in the early to mid-19th century with the one at Sturmer being placed alongside the original milestone.

With the advent of the railways and then motorised transport, the function of the milestones waned. Many of them were removed during the Second World War to confuse any potential German invaders and many were not replaced afterwards.