Tower Cottage and Attached Wall Tower House and Attached Wall is a Grade II listed building in the Melton local planning authority area, England. First listed on 1 February 1974. Cottage.
Tower Cottage and Attached Wall Tower House and Attached Wall
- WRENN ID
- first-obsidian-hyssop
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Melton
- Constituency
- Melton and Syston MP: Edward Argar (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 1 February 1974
- Type
- Cottage
- Address
- Tower Cottage and Attached Wall Tower House and Attached Wall, Church Lane, Ab Kettleby
- OS grid reference
- SK 710 231
- Coordinates
- 52.80137, -0.947
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Tower Cottage, also known as Tower House, is a cottage dated 1656, which has likely been largely rebuilt in the mid to late 19th century and the 20th century. It is constructed from coursed squared ironstone and features a pantile roof. The building has a two-unit double-depth plan.
The central door, which is from the 20th century, is flanked by 20th-century casement windows on both the ground and first floors. The ground floor windows have flat-arched brick heads, while the first-floor windows have segmental-arched brick heads. Above the door is a limestone datestone, and the eaves are decorated with dentilled brickwork.
To the right of the center, a square brick turret rises, featuring oculus windows on each side. An attached wall to the left and the rear of the cottage is made of brick and has row-headed arches. This wall separates the forecourt from the garden of Wartnaby Hall, which is not included in the listing. The wall incorporates medieval stonework that is mostly visible from the garden side. This stonework was likely removed from the Church of St Michael in Wartnaby during its significant restoration in 1867-1868.
The wall includes a complete 13th-century doorway made of ironstone, featuring chamfered jambs with attached shafts at the angles, imposts, a moulded pointed head, and a hood mould with label stops. There is also a semi-circular ironstone capital of a respond with a polygonal limestone abacus decorated with nailhead ornament. Additionally, part of the head of a 14th-century window with a quatrefoil, hood mould, and label stops is present, along with a possible canopy head and half of a circular cross head made of limestone, which may have been a gable cross. The back wall of the cottage, which is within a conservatory, has a similar respond and a two-light window with cusped Y tracery and a hood mould.
Local climate
Tower Cottage and Attached Wall Tower House and Attached Wall sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 78% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 83% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 37 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 69% of listed buildings. Of these, 18 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
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- 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
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- Ab Kettleby War Memorial
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