Survey Data

Reg No

11902307


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Historical, Social, Technical


Original Use

Water tower


In Use As

Water tower


Date

1855 - 1860


Coordinates

278435, 211394


Date Recorded

22/10/2002


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Freestanding single-bay four-stage red brick water tower, built 1856, on a square-plan. Concave pyramidal roof with slate. Clay ridge tiles. Ball finial to apex with iron weather vane. Red brick walls. Moulded cut-stone stringcourses to each stage. Clock to upper stage with yellow brick surrounds. Round-headed openings (paired to third stage). Stone sills. Yellow brick dressings. Louvered timber panelled fittings. Sited within Curragh Camp set back from road in own grounds.

Appraisal

This water tower is a fine, elegant red brick structure that retains much of its original character. The water tower is of social and historic interest, representing a component of the development of the military camp in the mid nineteenth century. Although a functional piece, it has been conceived as an aesthetic object also and employs a variety of decoration to each level. Features of note are the early red brick work, the yellow brick dressings (producing a polychromatic effect) and the early clock to the upper face that is apparently still in working order. The role of the water tower is of technical and engineering interest and additional features such as the gangways to some levels attest to its subsequent use as a look out tower when the surrounding grounds were in use as an internment camp. The tower is attractively sited in the centre of the Curragh Camp complex and, together with the towers of the fire station and church, forms and imposing feature on the skyline.