A 300 year old Grade Two listed building has been badly damaged by fire.

Around 40 firefighters battled to stop the blaze spreading through The Cheynes - a row of timber buildings in Broad Street, Sutton Valence - on Thursday afternoon.

They were called at around 2.30pm yesterday, and the fire was out an hour later.

It destroyed large parts of a terraced property but no one is thought to have been hurt.

On Friday neighbours were rallying around the owner of the fire-damaged home, who was still assessing the damage and not available for comment.

"It’s a lovely house and she’s worked very hard on it," said neighbour Jane Chipchase, whose detached house stands less than a metre from the damaged property. "We had to get out because they didn’t know at that stage how bad it would be."