Essex: Three Grade II listed buildings added to at-risk register

Parndon Hall in Harlow is currently part of the Princess Alexandra Hospital but has been mothballed

A Grade II listed hospital unit is one of three Essex buildings added to an independent "at-risk register".

Parndon Hall in Harlow, Essex, contains "unique wall paintings" by the wife of its owner when it was built in 1867.

The building, now training rooms for the NHS Princess Alexandra Hospital, has been added to Save Britain's Heritage's protected list.

Buildings-at-risk officer, Liz Fuller, said the properties held "an important and vivid record of the past".

The register, compiled by the independent conservation body, said Parndon Hall had been "mothballed" due to concerns about its maintenance, with its future now "in question".

The building on Bridge Street, Saffron Walden, may have disused fuel tanks within the grounds

It is among 70 new entries to the at-risk register, bringing the total number of empty, historic buildings "at risk of demolition or dereliction" to more than 1,400 across the UK.

Number 12, Bridge Street, in Saffron Walden, which is a a Grade II listed, 16th Century house, has also been added to the register.

Formerly the premises of a coach hire business, the register states that the building is "in a sad state of repair" and there are fears that it contains disused fuel tanks "beneath the adjacent hardstanding".

Rood End House in Great Dunmow is a timber-framed building that has been used as office space

Rood End House, in Great Dunmow - which is also Grade II listed - has also joined the register.

The timber-framed and plastered building "with an early 19th Century front" was "a handsome part of the Great Dunmow streetscape", according to the register entry.

It was used as office accommodation for many years.

Ms Fuller said the register "calls attention to these neglected buildings which otherwise can be ignored or remain undiscovered".

"The buildings that we are adding to the Save Britain's Heritage buildings-at-risk register represent our national heritage in all its different forms," she added.

"If we do not take steps to find new uses for them, they are at risk of being lost, and with them an important and vivid record of the past."

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