Rowhedge Watertower
ROWHEDGE WATERTOWER, BERKELEY GARDENS
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1389625
- Date first listed:
- 20-Dec-2001
- List Entry Name:
- Rowhedge Watertower
- Statutory Address:
- ROWHEDGE WATERTOWER, BERKELEY GARDENS
Have you got a photo to share?
Join the Missing Pieces Project. We want you to share your photos and memories.
Location
Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.
Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions .
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.
What is the National Heritage List for England?
The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.
The list includes:
 |
Buildings |
 |
Scheduled monuments |
 |
Parks and gardens |
 |
Battlefields |
 |
Shipwrecks |
Local Heritage Hub
Unlock and explore hidden histories, aerial photography, and listed buildings and places for every county, district, city and major town across England.
Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1389625
- Date first listed:
- 20-Dec-2001
- List Entry Name:
- Rowhedge Watertower
- Statutory Address 1:
- ROWHEDGE WATERTOWER, BERKELEY GARDENS
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:
- ROWHEDGE WATERTOWER, BERKELEY GARDENS
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Essex
- District:
- Colchester (District Authority)
- Parish:
- East Donyland
- National Grid Reference:
- TM0291021419
Details
584/0/10050 BERKELEY GARDENS
20-DEC-01 Rowhedge Watertower
II
Water tower. 1902, for the Lexden and Winstree Rural District Council. Red brick with cast-iron tank painted in red oxide and copper pavilion roof surmounted by a wooden turret. Built as a campanile, the elevations being in Romanesque style and being symmetrical with the exception of a door in the east elevation. The door has a glazed fanlight with a stone hood mould on the extrados of the half-round gauged brick arch. It is flanked by two tall and narrow semi-circular arched windows, with timber casements, that are set in tall semi-circular arched recessed panels, there being a shorter panel with similar window over the entrance. Other elevations are also in 3 bays, with full-height arches to similar recessed panels. Moulded and dentilled cornice set under water tank, with bracketed cornice to pyramidal roof; turret is louvred on 3 sides and glazed on the fourth.
HISTORY: a fine example of a campanile water tower boldly executed in Romanesque style. Water towers formed an integral element of the built infrastructure water distribution systems - which included reservoirs and pumping stations - that were put in place especially in association with Public Health reforms from the mid nineteenth century: they were used in low-lying areas where the topography was insufficient for a reservoir to achieve the required water pressure: cast-iron tanks were used in England from the 1830s, the great majority of these towers dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This is a substantial and imposing water tower, built in Romanesque Revival style with pilastering and tall arches rising to a pavilion roof and louvred turret. It is part of a very distinctive group of such towers in Essex, very similar in style to those at Bocking (Lyons Hall) and West Mersea (Upland Road) which date from the 1920s, and to that at Wivenhoe which dates from 1901. These water towers, designed in the manner of a 'campanile', represented an elaborate architectural variation on the theme of the traditional brick water tower, the most notable example in a national context being the 'Jumbo' tower in Colchester (listed grade II). This example, on account of its fine proportions and use of detail, is a most notable example.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 488313
- Legacy System:
- LBS
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 26-Jun-2026 at 09:29:47.
Download a full scale map (PDF)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.