Waterloo memorial at Romsey Abbey

Abbey churchyard, Romsey, Hampshire

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Memorial to the Battle of Waterloo, 1815. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1409113
Date first listed:: 24-Jul-2012
List Entry Name:: Waterloo memorial at Romsey Abbey
Statutory Address:: Abbey churchyard, Romsey, Hampshire

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1409113
Date first listed:: 24-Jul-2012
List Entry Name:: Waterloo memorial at Romsey Abbey
Statutory Address 1:: Abbey churchyard, Romsey, Hampshire

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

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

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:: Abbey churchyard, Romsey, Hampshire

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

County:: Hampshire
District:: Test Valley (District Authority)
Parish:: Romsey
National Grid Reference:: SU3510421217

Summary

Memorial to the Battle of Waterloo, 1815.

Reasons for Designation

The Waterloo memorial at Romsey Abbey is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Historic interest: an early instance of a war memorial, public in character though erected by a private individual, commemorating a pivotal event in British and European history; * Design interest: a late-Georgian public monument of simple but handsome Neoclassical design.

History

The monument was set up in or shortly after 1815 in commemoration of Wellington's recent victory at Waterloo. The identity of the 'young architect' who erected it is not known.

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on 18 June 1815 between Napoleon's armée du Nord and a coalition army of British, Dutch and German troops commanded by the Duke of Wellington, along with a smaller Prussian army under Gebhard von Blücher. Nearly 200,000 troops took part, and there were over 70,000 casualties. Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo marked the end of his 'Hundred Days' of return from exile on Elba, the definitive conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars and the beginning of a century of British dominance in Europe. Contemporary British memorials to the battle range from the 150-foot Waterloo Tower near Ancrum in the Scottish Borders to the rough stone obelisk at Great Torrington, Devon. However, the practice of erecting war memorials (as opposed to monuments to leading officers) did not become widespread until the Crimean War of 1853-6.

Details

The monument stands within Romsey churchyard, to the south of the Abbey church. It is of limestone ashlar, and comprises a square base and three battered stages separated by flat abaci. The topmost stage is surmounted by an urn or vase with lobed ornament and grotesque heads. The lowest stage bears an inset marble plaque inscribed: 'THIS COLUMN WAS ERECTED / BY A YOUNG ARCHITECT / OF THIS TOWN / IN COMMEMORATION / OF THE VICTORIOUS BATTLE OF / WATERLOO / IN WHICH BRITISH VALOUR / WAS TRIUMPHANT / AND SECURED / TO THE CONTENDING POWERS / OF EUROPE / TRANQUILLITY AND PEACE / JUNE 18TH 1815'.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 6 December 2016.

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Lloyd, D, The Buildings of England: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, (1985), 486
Websites
War Memorials Online, accessed 06/12/2016 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/227945
War Memorials Register, accessed 06/12/2016 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/21512

Legal

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