Roadside Horse Trough and Drinking Fountain is a Grade II listed building in the Tunbridge Wells local planning authority area, England. First listed on 24 August 1990. Horse trough, drinking fountain.
Roadside Horse Trough and Drinking Fountain
- WRENN ID
- nether-render-evening
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Tunbridge Wells
- Constituency
- Tunbridge Wells MP: Mike Martin (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 24 August 1990
- Type
- Horse trough, drinking fountain
- Address
- Roadside Horse Trough and Drinking Fountain, Groombridge Hill, Speldhurst
- OS grid reference
- TQ 532 379
- Coordinates
- 51.12028, 0.18867
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The roadside horse trough and drinking fountain, dated 1894, were erected in memory of William Coston Oswell, who built the nearby Norman Shaw house, Hillside. Constructed from polished grey limestone with some glazed red brick, both features are set into a coursed sandstone wall that supports the hillside. They are positioned alongside the road up Groombridge Hill, facing south. The trough is supported by two piers of glazed brick and is in front of a brick back piece that rises to the rim, topped with a large limestone panel featuring a curvilinear shape. In the center, a vesica-shaped panel is inscribed with the date 1894 and an inscription in capital letters commemorating William Coston Oswell. There are stone shelves on each side of the trough. To the right is the drinking fountain, designed in the style of an ecclesiastical piscina, featuring a trefoil-headed niche and a projecting bowl on a moulded base. This horse trough and drinking fountain are part of an important group of listed buildings in the vicinity of Groombridge Place and Old Groombridge village.
Local climate
Roadside Horse Trough and Drinking Fountain receives an average of 760 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 67% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 57% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 30 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 65% of listed buildings. Of these, 14 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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