Post marking Essex-London border gets listed status

A Victorian-era boundary post was among the Essex landmarks to be granted listed status by Historic England in 2025.

The post, located in Theydon Bois, was added to the National Heritage List for England, which grants it protection from redevelopment.

The cast-iron structure was built in the 1860s and was used to mark the border between London and Essex. It is one of the last remaining posts from a ring of 280 that once surrounded the capital.

St Peter's Church in Littlebury Green, near Saffron Walden, was also added to the list and is now a Grade II listed building. Historic England described it as a "rare Victorian gem of corrugated iron, faith and rural ingenuity".

The "tin tabernacle" design of St Peter's Church used to be common for churches, but is now increasingly rare. It was built in 1885 as a chapel of ease for people who lived further from the main parish church.

St Peter's is a "highly unusual" case as it survives on its original site and retains the majority of its original fabric, while many others of its type were dismantled.

While modest in size, the church's wooden cupola with bell, Gothic openings and Y-tracery windows gives it "surprising architectural presence", Historic England said.

The pine-lined interior is almost completely intact, with original pews, altar fittings, decorative transfers in the windows and a biblical text encircling the chancel arch.

The coal duty boundary post on the side of Epping Road in Theydon Bois is one of the last remaining posts from a ring that once surrounded London.

Placed between 20 to 25 miles from the city, they marked the boundary where duty was payable on coal imported into the capital under the London Coal and Wine Duties Continuance Act of 1861.

The white-painted square column bears the inscription "24 VICT", referring to the 1861 Act, along with the maker's mark at ground level.

In total, 48 historic buildings and sites have been added to the National Heritage List for England in the East of England in 2025.

Other highlights include the "time capsule" Adams Heritage Centre, in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, that specialises in Norwegian ice skates, and the arts and crafts garden of Great Ruffins in Wickham Bishops, Essex, designed by architect Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo in 1903.

"These newly protected places demonstrate the remarkable diversity of England's heritage", co-CEOs of Historic England Claudia Kenyatta and Emma Squire said in a statement.

"They connect us to the people and events that shaped our communities.

"From ancient burial sites to shipwrecks and wartime defences to post-modernist buildings, street furniture and Arts and Crafts gardens, these sites reveal the fascinating history that surrounds us all."

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