Retaining Walls to the Cold Bath, Octagon Pool and Watery Walk
RETAINING WALLS TO THE COLD BATH, OCTAGON POOL AND WATERY WALK
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1052955
- Date first listed:
- 27-Aug-1957
- List Entry Name:
- Retaining Walls to the Cold Bath, Octagon Pool and Watery Walk
- Statutory Address:
- RETAINING WALLS TO THE COLD BATH, OCTAGON POOL AND WATERY WALK
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1052955
- Date first listed:
- 27-Aug-1957
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 29-Jun-1988
- List Entry Name:
- Retaining Walls to the Cold Bath, Octagon Pool and Watery Walk
- Statutory Address 1:
- RETAINING WALLS TO THE COLD BATH, OCTAGON POOL AND WATERY WALK
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- RETAINING WALLS TO THE COLD BATH, OCTAGON POOL AND WATERY WALK
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Oxfordshire
- District:
- West Oxfordshire (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Rousham
- National Grid Reference:
- SP4775524500
Details
ROUSHAM ROUSHAM PARK GARDENS
SP4724
14/230 Retaining walls to The Cold
27/08/57 Bath, Octagon Pool and Watery
Walk
(Formerly listed under The
Cold Bath and small adjoining
pavilion...)
GV II*
Retaining walls. c.1738-40, by William Kent. Squared and coursed limestone.
Surround octagonal Cold Bath with ashlar rim and larger Octagon Pond in Venus'
Vale. Serpentine stream of channelled limestone runs from spring near Temple of
Echo (q.v.) through Cold Bath to Octagon Pond. The serpentine stream is of great
importance as the earliest example of the Rococo "line of beauty" applied to
garden design and is the embodiment of Kent's dictum that "Nature abhors a
straight line": it is known as both the Watery Walk and The Rill. Part of the
landscape gardens laid out by William Kent between 1733-40.
(Rousham Park is included in the H.B.M.C. Register of Parks and Gardens at Grade
I; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire: pp745-6; M.I. Wilson, William Kent
1685-1748, 1984, p214)
Listing NGR: SP4775524500
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 252886
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Wilson, MT, William Kent 1685-1748, (1984), 214
Pevsner, N, Sherwood, J, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, (1974), 745-6
Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 34 Oxfordshire
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 29-Jun-2026 at 10:04:07.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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