diff --git a/tests/test_build_linkcheck.py b/tests/test_build_linkcheck.py
index cb835449861..c4d54c8fe4a 100644
--- a/tests/test_build_linkcheck.py
+++ b/tests/test_build_linkcheck.py
@@ -521,6 +521,7 @@ def do_GET(self):
         self.send_header("Content-Length", str(len(content)))
         self.end_headers()
         self.wfile.write(content)
+        self.close_connection = True  # we don't expect the client to read this response body
 
 
 @pytest.mark.sphinx('linkcheck', testroot='linkcheck-localserver', freshenv=True)