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The Bridgewater Monument

The Bridgewater Monument, Ringshall Road

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1078046
Date first listed:: 13-May-1952
List Entry Name:: The Bridgewater Monument
Statutory Address:: The Bridgewater Monument, Ringshall Road

User submitted image — Uploaded by Nigel Cox This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
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Date:: 2001-11-15
Reference:: IOE01/05768/16
Rights:: © Mr Nick Jarvis. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1078046
Date first listed:: 13-May-1952
List Entry Name:: The Bridgewater Monument
Statutory Address 1:: The Bridgewater Monument, Ringshall Road

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: The Bridgewater Monument, Ringshall Road

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Hertfordshire
District:: Dacorum (District Authority)
Parish:: Aldbury
National Grid Reference:: SP 97011 13118

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 14 April 2022 to remove superfluous amendment details and to reformat the text to current standards

SP 91 SE 5/3

ALDBURY Moneybury Hill RINGSHALL ROAD (West side) The Bridgewater Monument

14.5.52

GV II*

Monumental column. 1831-2 by Sir Jeffry Wyatville for Lord Farnborough as executor to will of 8th Earl of Bridgewater. Built by Philip Nowell of Pimlico 1831-. Pedestal inscribed c.1833 'IN HONOUR OF/FRANCIS, THIRD DUKE OF BRIDGEWATER/"FATHER OF INLAND NAVIGATION"/1832'. Grey micaceous granite, steps and interior of base in yellow freestone, finial a giant copper urn, wrought iron for balustrade round top, handrail and grill at entrance. A splendid neo-Classical monument in the form of a fluted giant Greek Doric column about 40m high surmounted by an urn, the abacus a viewing platform, with a tectonic stepped cubical base and battered high plinth with two offsets and tall vertical projections in the middle of each side. Rectangular entrance up two steps in East projection has plain surround with converging uprights, and faces the long, designed vista eastwards to the family seat, Ashridge House in Little Gaddesden parish q.v. Inscription quoted is inscribed with sunk sans serif lettering.

Contemporary brass plate in entrance passage inscribed 'THIS COLUMN WAS ERECTED CONFORMABLE WITH THE INTENTION OF JOHN WILLIAM EARL OF BRIDGEWATER ACCORDING TO THE TESTAMENTARY DIRECTION OF FRANCIS HENRY EARL OF BRIDGEWATER AND WITH THE APPROBATION OF CHARLOTTE C. ANNE COUNTESS OF BRIDGEWATER IN HONOUR OF FRANCIS THIRD DUKE OF BRIDGEWATER, WHO BY DEVOTING THE ENERGIES OF HIS MIND TO THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE MOST SPLENDID WORKS OF INLAND NAVIGATION OPENED A NEW FIELD TO NATIONAL INDUSTRY AND RENDERED THE MOST IMPORTANT SERVICES TO THE COMMERCIAL INTERESTS OF HIS COUNTRY'.

The monument stands on a spur at the highest point in the parish, 731ft above ordnance datum. Kelly states that it was intended in commemoration of the completion of the Grand Junction Canal. The column is a formal monument to celebrate the canal era, built at its height and before the coming of the railways.

(VCH(1908)143: Kelly(1914)19: Pevsner(1977)65: Derek Linstrum Sir Jeffry Wyatville: Architect to the King Oxford(1972)229).

Listing NGR: SP9701113118

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 355639
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Doubleday, AH, The Victoria History of the County of Hertford, (1908), 143
Lindstrum, D, Sir Jeffry Wyatville: Architect to the King, (1972), 229
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977), 65
'Kelly's Directory' in Kelly's Directory, (1914), 19

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.