Castle Carr Water Garden and Pumphouse is a Grade II listed building in the Calderdale local planning authority area, England. First listed on 18 April 1990. Water garden, pumphouse.
Castle Carr Water Garden and Pumphouse
- WRENN ID
- standing-quoin-elder
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Calderdale
- Constituency
- Calder Valley MP: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 18 April 1990
- Type
- Water garden, pumphouse
- Address
- Castle Carr Water Garden and Pumphouse, Castle Carr Road, Wadsworth
- OS grid reference
- SE 023 300
- Coordinates
- 53.76647, -1.96562
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
An ornamental water garden, completed in 1870, is situated between two reservoirs. It was designed by James Hogg of Halifax and built by the Halifax Water Corporation for Mr J P Edwards, whose Castle Carr estate the garden occupies. The garden was constructed as compensation for using Edwards' land during the damming of the Luddenden Valley, intended to provide additional water for the expanding city of Halifax.
The garden's main feature is a large circular pool with a central jet fountain, originally reputed to have risen to a height of 100 feet, possibly the second-highest in England. Water flows into this pool via a stepped cascade from the north, approached by flanking staircases. Above the cascade is a double arched tunnel/bridge, featuring plain ashlar parapets. Four smaller circular pools, each with a single jet fountain, are located to the north west, north east, south west, and south east of the main pool.
Further along the north west edge of the garden is another small circular pool and an octagonal pumphouse. This pumphouse is constructed of rock-faced stone and has a chamfered plinth, bracketed cornice and chamfered parapet. The entrance front features double plank doors, chamfered jambs, and an inscribed lintel and gable reading "1870 HALIFAX CORPORATION, LUDDENDEN VALLEY EXTENSIONS". The side fronts have single blocked windows. A smaller, lower circular pool is located within the southern end of the main pool, featuring curved waterfalls. A viewing platform is situated at the north edge of this smaller pool, accessed by three stone flying staircases linked by small curved bridges within the lower pool. These form a central island with four cut-water buttresses projecting above the parapet wall. South of this pool, a long, narrow canal discharges its water down another cascade at its southern end into the lower reservoir. All stone abutment walls are of rock-faced ashlar, with chamfered ashlar parapets.
Local climate
Castle Carr Water Garden and Pumphouse sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,100 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 88% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 80% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 53 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 94% of listed buildings. Of these, 31 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
Sign in or create a free account to unlock:
- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
Similar buildings
The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.
- 1 Jellicoe watercourse, including associated retaining wall, viewing platforms, railings and planters at former Cadbury factory
- 2 Sunken Garden on South of West Wing of Marsh Court
- 3 Water Gardens
- 4 Draw Off Tower, Tunnel Mouth, Dam Causeway and Bridge at Swithland Reservoir Water Works
- 5 Wave Wall, Water Ladder, and Attached Buildings
this building 1 similar nearby listed buildings