Former Sergeant's Mess, Royal Artillery Barracks (also known as Le Cateau Barracks)

Former Sergeant's Mess, Royal Artillery Barracks, Le Cateau Road, Colchester

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1375581
Date first listed:
08-Jul-1998
List Entry Name:
Former Sergeant's Mess, Royal Artillery Barracks (also known as Le Cateau Barracks)
Statutory Address:
Former Sergeant's Mess, Royal Artillery Barracks, Le Cateau Road, Colchester
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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1375581
Date first listed:
08-Jul-1998
List Entry Name:
Former Sergeant's Mess, Royal Artillery Barracks (also known as Le Cateau Barracks)
Statutory Address 1:
Former Sergeant's Mess, Royal Artillery Barracks, Le Cateau Road, Colchester

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
Former Sergeant's Mess, Royal Artillery Barracks, Le Cateau Road, Colchester

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:
Essex
District:
Colchester (District Authority)
Parish:
Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:
TL 99275 24451

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 30 July 2025 to amend the name, address, description and to reformat the text to current standards

TM 9924 SE
584/18/10014

COLCHESTER
LE CATEAU ROAD
Royal Artillery Barracks (also known as Le Cateau Barracks)
Former Sergeant's Mess

(Formerly listed as Former Sergeants' Mess, Le Cateau Barracks, Colchester Garrison, LE CATEAU ROAD)

GV
II
Former sergeant’s mess, built in 1874-75 to a design by Lieutenant General Charles Brisbane Ewart RE, Deputy Director of Works for Barracks at the War Office

MATERIALS: red brick with yellow brick and limestone dressings, brick ridge and lateral stacks and slate cross-gable roof.

PLAN: single-depth, T-shaped plan.

EXTERIOR: two storey; 2:3-window range. Projecting left-hand gable, yellow brick plinth, cill and lintel bands, brick eaves cornice and coped gables, ashlar flat heads to 6/6-pane sashes, which are paired on the ground floor of the projecting gable, beneath a tripartite upper window with Caernarvon arch containing simple plate tracery. A single-storey porch in the re-entrant has a raking roof and plain flat-headed doorway. The roof has a square lantern with pyramidal roof and finial.

INTERIOR: not inspected.

HISTORY: Part of the Le Cateau barracks, which were the second permanent barracks at Colchester after the Calvary Barracks which were built in 1862-64. The Gothic detail exhibits an unusually ornamental approach to barracks design. Le Cateau is the last surviving example of the new layout of cavalry barracks developed at Aldershot in the 1850s for large scale training camps.

SOURCES: PSA Drawings Collection, NMR, Swindon: Colchester: CTR 130-158; Dietz P: Garrison Ten British Military Towns: London: 1986: 3-22.

Listing NGR: TL9927524451

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:
469545
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Dietz, P, Garrison Ten Military Towns, (1986), 3-22

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of Former Sergeant's Mess, Royal Artillery Barracks (also known as Le Cateau Barracks)

Map

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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