Watchtower is a Grade II listed building in the Vale of Glamorgan local planning authority area, Wales. First listed on 7 February 1978. Watchtower.

Watchtower

WRENN ID
errant-stronghold-umber
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Vale of Glamorgan
Constituency
Vale of Glamorgan MP: Kanishka Narayan (Lab)
Country
Wales
Date first listed
7 February 1978
Type
Watchtower
Address
Watchtower, The Knap, Barry
OS grid reference
ST 103 663
Coordinates
51.38877, -3.28963
Source
Cadw listing

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

Description

The building is a two-storey watchtower made of lias rubble. It has a battered base and features a corbelled parapet along with a string course. The seaward elevation includes a corner chimney stack on the first floor chamber, which is lit by a segmental-headed window. There is a former boat entrance with a segmental-headed arch, although the lower part has been blocked to create a window. The west elevation has a wide square-headed entry with boarded doors below and a camber-headed window above. The elevations facing east and north are blank.

Local climate

Watchtower sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,090 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 87% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 92% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 17 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 83% of listed buildings. Of these, 6 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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  • 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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