An out-of-control blaze has damaged a 600-year-old farmhouse.

A fire, believed to be caused by an electrical fault, broke out in the scullery of a house in Gubbions Green, Great Leighs, at 11.48am last Monday.

When firefighters arrived, ten per cent of the ground floor was well alight and the rest of the house was smoke-logged.

The scullery was 50 per cent alight.

In less than an hour, the fire had spread to the first floor of the house.

See this week's Braintree Times for the full story.