The Water Tower is a Grade II listed building in the West Northamptonshire local planning authority area, England. Water tower. 1 related planning application.
The Water Tower
- WRENN ID
- frozen-pilaster-root
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- West Northamptonshire
- Constituency
- South Northamptonshire MP: Sarah Bool (Con)
- Country
- England
- Type
- Water tower
- Address
- The Water Tower, Castle Ashby Park
- OS grid reference
- SP 862 592
- Coordinates
- 52.22495, -0.73908
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Water Tower is a Grade II listed structure built in 1865, designed by supervising architect Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt. It is part of the improvements made at Castle Ashby by the 3rd Marquis of Northampton. The tower is constructed from coursed limestone rubble with limestone dressings, featuring concrete and lead roofs.
This square tower has an octagonal stair turret at the south-west angle, which includes an additional stage, reaching approximately 75 feet at the top of the turret. The bottom stage has a batter and a tall archway that connects the courtyard on the west side of Castle Ashby to a formal walk at the west end of the terrace gardens, leading down to the park. The round-headed arch has a tall keyblock and imposts, supported by console brackets. To the left of the archway is a narrow door leading to the stair turret, which has a segmental-arched head.
The third stage features a belvedere room with pairs of round-arched windows on each side and stone balconies below, supported by moulded stone brackets. The windows are divided by a shaft and have plate-glass sashes, with a pieced balustrade on the balconies. The top stage, which contains tanks, has a corbel table and large keyed roundels on each side in square moulded stone surrounds. These roundels feature a pierced stone monogram of Charles, the 3rd Marquis of Northampton, and his wife Theodosia.
The turret has a pierced parapet, while the lower section features a lettered parapet with the date 1865 on the courtyard side and the family motto "NISI DOMINUS" on the other sides. A single-storey link connects the tower to the single-storey wings flanking the court on the west side of Castle Ashby. The Water Tower is the tallest building in the Castle Ashby complex and serves as a notable landmark.
Local climate
The Water Tower sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 89% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 87% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 36 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 60% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 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
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- 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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