Ship's Figurehead from the Arethusa is a Grade II listed building in the Medway local planning authority area, England. First listed on 25 January 2019. A Victorian Figurehead.

Ship's Figurehead from the Arethusa

WRENN ID
white-glass-grove
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Medway
Constituency
Rochester and Strood MP: Lauren Edwards (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
25 January 2019
Type
Figurehead
Address
Ship's Figurehead from the Arethusa, Grounds of the Arethusa Venture Centre, 14 Upnor Road, Rochester, Frindsbury Extra, ME2 4XB
OS grid reference
TQ 762 712
Coordinates
51.41283, 0.53281
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: sale history · EPC · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Ship's Figurehead from the Arethusa is a carved wooden figurehead created in 1859 by James Hellyer and Sons for the Royal Navy. This figurehead is attached to the original decorated stemhead and is flanked by two short lengths of the Arethusa’s handrails. It is positioned on a two-stepped square concrete plinth beneath a protective wooden canopy. On either side of the structure, there are two small muzzle-loading cannons that were given to the Arethusa in 1934. The entire structure is surrounded by a steel fence. However, the canopy, cannons, and fence are not included in the listing. The figurehead itself is a polychrome painted female bust with brown hair parted in the center, featuring ringlets at the sides of the head, and dressed in a loose early Victorian period dress with a waistband.

Local climate

Ship's Figurehead from the Arethusa sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 720 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 84% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 74% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 23 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 76% of listed buildings. Of these, 11 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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  • Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
  • Sale history — 2 transactions since 2022
  • 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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