Reconstructed Roman Watchtower

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

Overview

Reconstruction of a Roman watchtower built in 1905 within what was thought of at the time as a Roman military enclosure. This site is now interpreted as an Iron Age defended farmstead or small settlement. The tower is included within the surrounding scheduled monument. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1419209
Date first listed:: 15-Sep-2014
List Entry Name:: Reconstructed Roman Watchtower

The Missing Pieces Project

Share your view of unique places.

Add your contribution

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

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

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1419209
Date first listed:: 15-Sep-2014
List Entry Name:: Reconstructed Roman Watchtower
Location Description:: Castle Hill, Kirklees Park, West Yorkshire centred at SE1735521658.

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

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

District:: Calderdale (Metropolitan Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SE1735521658

Summary

Reasons for Designation

The reconstructed Roman watchtower is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Date: as an early example of experimental archaeology, being the earliest identified example in England of a historical reconstruction of a Roman building; * Architecture: a well-built and interesting interpretation of Roman illustrations of watchtowers; * Group value: with the surrounding scheduled monument of which it is part, as well as the registered Kirklees Park and its other listed garden structures.

History

The watchtower was built in 1905 at around the same time that part of the surrounding earthwork ramparts were investigated archaeologically by Sir George Armytage (6th Baronet). Armytage concluded that what is now considered to be an Iron Age defended settlement or farmstead (and was designated a scheduled monument in 1936) was a Roman military site. The watchtower, built as a summerhouse and viewing platform as part of the Edwardian improvements to Kirklees Park (a Grade II Registered Historic Park and Garden, was modelled on depictions of watchtowers carved on Trajan's Column in Rome, erected in AD 113. As such it is thought to have been the first example of a historical reconstruction of a Roman building erected in England, being roughly contemporary with the reconstruction of the Roman defences at Cardiff (1898-1923) and at Saalburg in Germany 1898-1907, and much earlier than the fort reconstructions at Metchley Birmingham (1953) and Lunt, Coventry (1970s).

Details

Reconstruction of a Roman watchtower, used as a summerhouse and viewing platform, 1905, for Sir George Armytage.

MATERIALS: coursed stone with quoining, the top floor originally with applied timbers and render to give the appearance of timber framing. Slate roof. PLAN: square, single celled with an external staircase to the first floor on the southern side.

EXTERIOR: at the time of inspection the watchtower was largely obscured by vegetation. The tower stands to full height, being of three storeys with a low-pitched pyramidal roof which originally had a wide overhang to protect the external second floor walkway which encompassed the tower; however most of the roof covering and some of the timber structure has been lost to decay, and only fragmentary remains of some of the supports provide evidence of the walkway. The central, nearly square windows to each side of the second floor have been bricked up, as has the doorway onto the walkway. Openings on the first floor remain open, (a doorway and two round arched windows) as does the ground floor doorway which has a timber lintel carrying the date MCMV. The external staircase is of stone and lacks any handrail.

INTERIOR: only fragmentary remains of the structure of the first and second floors remain. The walls appeared to have been unplastered.

DESIGNATION: the tower forms part of a scheduled monument (Castle Hill univallate defended settlement, Kirklees Park).

Sources

Books and journals
Wallace, C, 'The Arbeia Journal' in Reconstructed Roman Watchtower of the Early C20 at Kirklees, , Vol. 8, (2005), 129-131

Legal

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

The listed building is shown coloured blue on the attached map. Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’), structures attached to or within the curtilage of the listed building (save those coloured blue on the map) are not to be treated as part of the listed building for the purposes of the Act.