British Water Tower Appreciation Society

Bowling Green Mills, Bingley, West Yorkshire (1871)

2012-01-29T21:37:00.000Z

BWTAS member, David Blackburn, sent us the above photograph, of an industrial water tower, as we don’t feature many of these. To rectify this, I’ll post a trio of industrial towers this month. The first being this one at the UK headquarters of Damart, the thermal clothing manufacturer. "Bowling Green Mills", as it was called, was built in 1871 for the production of Worsted. From the image on Google Earth, looking down the Damart chimney, the tank appears to be open topped and no longer in use - originally it had a pitched roof. David said that "it looks as if the height of the tower has been raised once or twice" the different coloured brick work beneath the tank suggests this and an image of Bingley taken in 1894, confirms that the tank was at a lower level when compared to a 2009 picture taken from a similar angle. Between the tower and the fine chimney, is the engine house. A nice detail is the gable end that has a centrifugal "flyball" governor in relief. The chimney and engine house are Grade II listed (IoE #337966). The water tower is located at SE 10765 39410.

Ferrers

Soup Tower chairman reflects on icon of Kings Lynn

2012-01-27T08:24:00.003Z

Lynn: Tower loss is a blasted waste

CAMPBELL'S SOUPS TOWER A trip down memory lane Raymond Monbiot sifts through photographic memories of his time as UK chairman of Campbell's Soups. On the right of the picture is the Ogilvy Award which was won by the King's Lynn UK factory in 1984-85. The first time it was had been awarded to a factory outside the United States

Published on Thursday 26 January 2012 08:56

A former UK chairman and chief executive officer of Campbell’s Soups regards the destruction of the company’s iconic water tower at Lynn as a piece of town planning vandalism.

Raymond Monbiot, who still lives close to Lynn, ran the company for most of the 1980s though he was quick to emphasis his view was no criticism of Sarah Griffiths who was chosen to set off the charges that brought down the tower.

“They have removed an icon. The company did a lot for the town. They brought wealth and employment to King’s Lynn.”

He remembers when the tower was a flagship on the edge of The Fens. “When it was built in 1958 it was surrounded by green fields. Now it is surrounded by large stores and supermarkets.”

Campbell’s, a company with factories across the world, decided to site their first factory in Europe in the UK, some 3,000 miles from their head office in the United States. They chose King’s Lynn for their head-on battle for the British market against giants in the business like Heinz, Cross and Blackwell and Batchelor’s.

He said: “They came to King’s Lynn because of the clean air, clean water and the quality of the local produce.”

Monbiot was made UK chairman of Campbell’s in 1982 and later, in the mid-eighties, his responsibilities were increased when they opened a second factory in Salford in Lancashire. Such was the success of the two factories that the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, visited Salford to emphasise the importance to her government of the success of the American company’s entry into the British market.

During his time at the helm of the company there were 500 or so employers at Lynn.

Another important reason for choosing the town was that staff were ‘food friendly’.

“They came from an agricultural background and were well used to handling fresh produce.”

Many of the vegetables arrived at the factory with Fenland soil still clinging to them.

“In the factory there was always a wonderful smell of fresh food. We were a real quality food company,” he recalls.

But he also remembers the tight hold the parent company kept on its factories around the world.

He was inundated with books which detailed how to run the business.

“Even the pile of thick index books reached the ceiling. I never read them!”

Monbiot believes he was Campbell’s first British chairman and he used his long experience in the food industry to make sure their venture into the UK was success.

This was largely founded on their condensed soups which a survey discovered were used by eight out of 10 customers as sauces in their cooking, rather than purely as soups.

Emphasising this use was an innovation that helped increase the company’s share of the UK market from six per cent to 17 per cent and had the twin benefit of winning Lynn the company’s Ogilvy Award for success in 1984-85, the first time it had been presented to a factory outside the United States.

This success also meant that Monbiot had more autonomy that most chairman around the world.

“I was tactful but I was determined to run the business my way.”

But the destruction of the water tower marks the sad end to a company Monbiot believes did so much for Lynn.

Its height and size ensured that there was a constant and secure supply of clean water at the right pressure which was used copiously in all stages of the food process including being steam-heated to sterilize everything.

The destruction of the tower removes the last significant landmark of a local company that is a worldwide household name.

“Attempts were made to make the tower a listed building but they failed – I think by the Civic Society. I’m very sorry to see it go”

Now he has are only photographic memories of a company that was once the beating heart of the Lynn food industry

Lifted with apologies from Lynn News for preservation http://www.lynnnews.co.uk/news/environment/lynn_tower_loss_is_a_blasted_waste_1_3449419

New application for conversion of Aldeburgh Park Road water tower

2011-12-22T14:04:00.001Z

Suffolk Coastal District Council have posted notices that two new applications C/11/2792 and C/11/2991 have been received for conversion of the water tower at Park Road IP15 5ET where previous applications (references C/10/3260 and C/10/3261) were refused.

The architects believe the new scheme meets the concerns raised by the council and the members of the public with regard to the previous design.

BWTAS won't take sides on planning issues but it does note that the more thorough historical investigation of the tower that was submitted with this application shows that judgements of 'historic significance' and 'architectural merit' are relative and made according to the information available. We're grateful that the tower does have more historic significance than was first suspected with its connection to the transit system of Brooklyn, USA and the colourful William Fontaine Bruff, an emigrant from Essex to that city who made a fortune there in railways, one was called 'Bruff's Road', who was also the designer of the Aldeburgh tower.

William Bruff - water tower engineer

2011-12-22T11:01:00.001Z

From http://apps3.suffolkcoastal.gov.uk/planningonlinedocuments/125670_6.pdf and other sources:

William Fontaine Golding Bruff (elected associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 6 December 1864) was the son of Peter Schuyler Bruff, of Handford Lodge, Ipswich. The elder Bruff (1812–1900) was elected as a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 8 April 1856.

A photo of William's dad Peter is here https://east.veoliawater.co.uk/about-us-our-history.aspx

Peter Bruff was the foremost railway engineer in Essex and constructed the 325 metres long Chappel Viaduct in 1847-9. Bruff formed his own company to extend the railway line from Colchester to Ipswich and he was responsible for the Tendring Hundred Railway and was involved it its waterworks company. While working on the line he began to develop Walton-on-the-Naze as a seaside resort and built its pier, baths and Marine Terrace. He also bought 50 acres of land to found and develop the resort town of Clacton on Sea, Essex, building the pier, the Royal Hotel, the public hall in Pier Avenue and the town centre. Frinton was yet another Essex development interest.

William Bruff was the engineer for the Mid-Suffolk and Southwold Railways in 1865 and it is
likely that the family’s strong presence in Essex and Suffolk as well as their experience of water engineering stood him in good stead when the Aldeburgh Waterworks Company considered the appointment of an engineer. He remained essentially a railway man while he designed and built a water works and the water tower at Park Road, Aldeburgh IP15 5ET.

In the 1870s he was summonsed to court on a charge of embezzling money from his employers, contractors for the Severn Railway Bridge, but was acquitted for lack of evidence. He appears on a passenger list arriving in New York in 1871. By 1880 he was living in the USA and he became a US citizen. He appears on the incoming passenger list on the Lucania arriving in Liverpool from New York in 1899.

James Blaine Walker in his Fifty Years of Rapid Transit (1918; extract at Appendix B) described Bruff as the most picturesque figure in the history of Brooklyn’s rapid transport system. He "parted his hair as well as his name in the middle. He was one of the early types of the breezy, energetic promoter, and while he spent money lavishly he seems to have had a talent for gathering it in, and is credited with infusing life into the languishing project (Brooklyn Elevated Railway) and bringing about the road's construction. When he finally got the work started he would drive to it each morning in a stylish carriage, with a liveried coachman. He brought bankers into line and for a time funds rolled in upon him at the rate of $90,000 a week. He was elected president of the company in January, 1879."

The railway went through several bankruptcies and reorganisations and W. Fontaine Bruff became legendary for his headlong style in challenging the city aldermen and his rivals which had got him and his workmen arrested when they broke ground for the railway.

It appears that he returned to the UK as sick man and in 1911 was living in south Twickenham under medical supervision.

The Ipswich Journal also records one of their correspondents meeting him in London in 1874. Bruff is chomping on a half cigar and totally absorbed in surveying Temple Bar gate. At that time, the authorities wanted to pull it down as it was impeding the traffic. There were efforts to save the historic gateway and, some years later, it was bought by brewing magnate, dismantled stone by stone, and taken to his country pile in Hertfordshire. After purchase by a trust in the 1980‘s, Temple Bar was dismantled again and re-erected in 2004 at the entrance of the Paternoster Square near St Paul’s in London.

China's water history

2011-12-02T15:38:00.004Z

BWTAS recently received enquiries about images of Shanghai's metal water tower that we have covered in this journal and so were informed that a second steel water tower was built in Shanghai around 1905 by John Taylor and Sons. A drawing of it can be found in Chelsea to Cairo: Taylor-made water through eleven reigns and in six continents - Thomas Telford, London, a history of the engineering firm by Gwilym Roberts.

Dr Albert Koenig of Hong Kong University and co-author Du Pengfei of Tsinghua University would like to enlist the help of BWTAS members and water tower enthusiasts around the world as they are preparing a chapter on the water history of pre-modern China for a book: The Evolution of Water Supply Throughout the Millennia to be published by International Water Association Publishing. This tome is undoubtedly going to be on a lot of this journal's readers' wish lists.

The authors know another tower, an Eiffel-type hexagonal plan metal construction, was built for the Capital Water Ltd. in Beijing. Unfortunately, they cannot discover anything about its designer or builder.

Source: Gong shui zhi in: Beijing zhi. Shi zheng juan. Gong shui zhi. Gong re zhi. Ran qi zhi, (2003) Beijing Shi di fang zhi bian zuan wei yuan hui, ed. Beijing chu ban she, Beijing, p. 168ff.

Beijing water tower under construction, Photo taken by Ernst Boerschmann c.1907.

Source: Robert K.G. Temple (1990) Im Land des fliegenden Drachen: Chinesische Erfindungen aus vier Jahrtausenden. Vorwort von Joseph Needham. Gustav Luebbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany.

This type of tower, with its six legs, seems to sit somewhere somewhere on the road to development of the circular hyperboloid structure.

It was photographed under construction by the noted sinologist Ernst Boerschmann in 1907, who is well worth looking into as a subject. Between 1902 and 1949 he produced thousands of stunning photographs of China's old and modern architecture and its people.

If you know of any tower of a similar construction, please contact the authors at the email address below* and, if possible, provide the name of the designer.

kalbert (at) hkucc.hku.hk

(*if you're not a spam bot, you'll know what to do)

Blow me down: a chance to demolish iconic water tower

2011-11-12T08:43:00.002Z

The final chapter of the saga of the water tower at the former Campbell's soup factory will be written in the local newspaper. The Lynn News is offering readers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to push the detonator to demolish it later this month to make way for a Tesco supermarket. No word yet whether this is a BOGOF offer or will get any extra clubcard points.

If you know of someone you think should have this honour, send your nomination by Friday 18th November 2011 to mike.last@lynnnews.co.uk, or by letter to Mike Last, Senior Writer, Lynn News, Limes House, Purfleet Street, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, PE30 1HL.

BWTAS 2012 Calendars

2011-10-16T13:06:00.006+01:00

1/12/11 Sorry all 2012 calendars have sold out. Reserve the 2013 edition now to avoid disappointment.

It seems that Christmas comes earlier every year but for the water tower aficionados expecting a 2012 BWTAS calendar in their stocking, it can't come too soon.

BWTAS presents its first ever calendar. In a handy flip-over A3 format, each month has a full colour image of a UK water tower taken by a BWTAS member.

The print run has been limited to 75 copies (and 20 are pre-sold) so get your order in ASAP and sit back and enjoy the holiday season knowing that shopping for that water tower fan in your life is sorted.

enquiries: postmaster@andynorris8.plus.com

180° of Light show

2011-09-30T14:02:00.011+01:00

photo by SteveRSVR

180° of Light is a laser installation linking water towers in Rothwell, Desborough and Corby in the British Midlands with laser beams to form a triangle, the alchemical symbol of water. The project is a part of a county-wide series of site specific artworks on Northamptonshire's rivers, canals, waterways and water towers. There has already been an installation on Northamptonshire's Oxford canal and there will be a further installation at Sywell Reservoir in October. NESTA fellow Jo Fairfax and FLOW manager Graham Callister came up with the idea. Visible from the A14, the project is part of Igniting Ambition Festival and the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. The lasers shine from 7.30 to 9.30 pm until 2nd October 2011. Its website gives a raison d'etre:

This site-specific artwork highlights the architectural beauty, science and necessity of water towers in today’s society. Among their many uses, water towers provide pressure to maintain the safety of the water supply, without which water may not spray from a tap with sufficient FLOW.

By using several strikingly bold lasers, this site-specific, large scale installation produces a formal dynamic between the imposing circular drums of the water towers and the stunning, elevated triangle of light which unites them. Dominating the Northamptonshire landscape, 180° of Light encourages conversations both of architectural form and journey.

The artist, Jo Fairfax, described the installations:

“Creating a giant laser triangle hovering in the sky makes me smile. Each water tower forms the corner of the laser triangle creating a conversation in form - the circle of the water drum with the triangle of light. The journey of light is evident and the journey of water is implied, another conversation. The moving striated visual effect created as the laser light breaks down over distance implies a sense of journey. The water tower drum containing water held high, water reader to enter and exit, implies a journey. The two meet either side of the water drum. Both dynamic, one in its speed and break down, the other in its potential and pressure. Water and light, like siblings with a story to tell”.

Key funders included Arts Council England, Legacy Trust UK, Northamptonshire County Council, Anglian Water and Breath of Fresh Air, East Midlands.

More information about FLOW

BBC news slideshow http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-14983682

Here's map of the laser 'field' to aid viewing:

View flow towers in a larger map

BWTAS context:

Illuminating water towers has a long history and was commonplace when water towers were novel and objects of civic pride. The Thorpe Hamlet water tower in Norwich was illuminated for a year to commemorate George V's silver jubilee in 1935. A couple of generations later, illumination of towers was used as way of reasserting their monumental quality and renewing civic pride as part of regeneration schemes. Cranhill Arts Project in Glasgow illuminated their local tower a vibrant green with white spotlights and nearby the Craigend water towers were illuminated as part of Glasgow's reign as the European City of Culture. The city council's lighting strategy webpage asserts: "Good lighting helps to increase vitality and improve ambience. It contributes to a sense of identity and place, makes for a safer, friendlier environment and also supports and complements other regeneration initiatives."

Tower hunting in British Columbia

2011-09-23T14:29:00.013+01:00

While on vacation in British Columbia this month I was given a driving tour of the sights of the city of Victoria. When we stopped at Government House intending to eat our sandwiches in its splendid gardens, the cooler we had brought along was empty. The sandwiches had been made but left behind on the kitchen counter; the cook thinking the driver would pack them, the driver thinking the cook had packed them. While we made do with the dessert, my companions asked if there was anything in particular I wanted to stop and look at. A few minutes earlier I had glimpsed a water tower atop a distant hill so I said, if they didn't mind, that I'd like to take a look. "But", I warned them, "towers are shy creatures. If you go looking for them, they tend to run away..."

After stopping at the marvellous outdoor retailer Mountain Equipment Cooperative, we surmised from our map it must lie in the region of the Craigdarroch Castle so we headed there. Navigating the one-way system we came to the coal mine owner's mansion - scene of a legendary and lengthy family dispute - which is now a museum and walked around outside but were unable to see the tower from this vantage point. "It saw us coming" I told my companions. The 'castle', though imposing, is more a sandstone pastiche of Scottish laird and Disney fairytale but it was impressive that every window, including sash ones, and each door was carved to follow the curve of the turrets, a 'hang the cost' detail but with admission costing $13 pp, I have no doubt their upkeep is expensive.

The mansion is in the area called Rockland which was once Victoria's 'Nob Hill' and now an open-top English bus plys guided tours pointing out the mock-Tudor piles of other migrants who made their fortunes in lumber, furs, coal and construction in this last frontier and bastion of the British Empire. Though we couldn't see it, I suspected the elusive tower must be nearby as we were on a plateau and the tower must have been constructed to serve all these grand homes. We set off down the hill to backtrack to where I had first seen the tower, hoping that then we could then turn around and stalk towards it like a game of Grandmother's Footsteps.

Perhaps it felt like only playing peek-a-boo with us because as we drove away, we suddenly saw it looming over some houses. It was then a case of my jumping out with a camera to capture a view and try to find a way to walk to its base while my companions waited in the car, as they did not want to enrich the city with a parking fine nor be an accessory to any inadvertent trespass. Besides, a large party would likely scare it off again. It was a process of elimination in going up successive driveways, each tantalisingly appearing to lead to the base, to find the one which its attendants must have used to reach the door.

The tower sits rather dilapidated and unused in the garden of a old mansion which is now apparently a multiple rental/condo. Given that access to the tower must have some easement over the driveway, I ran up to the base to log the tower on my GPS device. We then quickly took our leave to visit one of Victoria's many coffee shops, the boho-style Tooks on Cook we had passed earlier. Here very satisfactory sandwiches and slice of quiche with a salad was not as elusive.

View MEC to tower expedition in a larger map

Tower Location: Laural Lane, Victoria B.C. Canada.
Built: 1908. Decommissioned: 2000
Height: 33.22 m.
Capacity: 412,330 litres.

The tower is an unreinforced 25.4 cm. thick concrete cylinder of 6.71 m. inside diameter, 21.34 m. high, supporting a 11.89 m. high water tank of equal diameter. This is a balancing reservoir. The tower can be clearly seen from the ocean and has been used as an navigation aid by small craft.

The 128-foot water tower was built by the famous contractor Henry Kaiser. In 1962, to commemorate the centenary of Victoria, the tower was topped by a 22-foot tall neon flame, which burned for over 25 years.

From Victoria Heritage Foundation

With Victoria’s population growing rapidly, the city water supply was quickly becoming inadequate, and 1909 saw construction of a 100,000-gallon concrete water tower. This must have seemed unsightly, among the villas and Garry oak meadows at one of the highest points of Rockland, but, along with the Smith Hill Reservoir, it constituted a stop-gap project to supply Victorians with water until the new system at Sooke Lake was built. The area around the water tower was known locally as Observatory Hill.

It featured a large, Queen Anne house called Observatory Villa with a 3-storey tower and a small observatory, which was built by amateur astronomer Oregon Columbus Hastings in 1890 (915 St. Charles Street, demolished). By 1903, the lane leading to the observatory had been officially named Observatory Hill.

Water tower film wanted by TV programme

2011-09-22T11:34:00.001+01:00

UPDATE

This programme will be transmitted on Thursday January 12, 20102 at 9pm on Channel 4.

--
Television programme "The Restoration Man” on Channel 4 are desperately looking for film footage shot between the 1900s-1930s showing any 19th century Water towers across Britain. Their programme is focussing on the Forge Lane Water Tower in Congleton, Cheshire but notwithstanding finding any film of that, they would like footage that shows the interior of any 19th century water tower with it’s water pump in action etc.

Forge Lane

Some possible towers could be:

Court Lodge Water Tower. Wrotham, Kent.

The Round House, Perth, Tayside, 1832

Everton Water Tower, Liverpool, Merseyside, 1854

Internally Flanged cast iron tank, Wivenhoe water tower, Essex, 1901

Flaybrick water tower, Birkenhead, Merseyside, 1865

Friday Bridge water tower, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, 1894

Westgate water tower, Lincoln, 1910

Lymm water tower, Cheshire.

Horncastle Road Water Tower, Boston, Lincolnshire, 1905

Hartlepool water towers, Cleveland

Balkerne Tower, Colchester, Essex, 1882

Winshill water tower, Burton on Trent, Staffs, 1907

Rockwell Green water tower, Wellington, Somerset, 1885

If you have any information about film footage please contact:

Jane Elizabeth Higgs
Archive Research
The Restoration Man
Tiger Aspect
0207 544 1649

The Zandvoort towers

2011-09-10T13:12:00.001+01:00

From this...

to This.

During World War II, our water towers were not attacked by enemy action, as we now know, the Luftwaffe used these landmarks as aid to navigation - the Dutch were not so lucky. The elegant, reinforced concrete tower on the left, by architect J. van Poelgeest and dating from 1912, was blown up on 17^th September 1943, by the occupying forces.

A new 48 metre high water tower that has a brick façade covering its reinforced concrete structure, was erected between 1949 and 1951 from a design by J. Zietsma. It was originally conceived as a round tower but ended up being an octagonal. The tower with two tanks with a total volume of 209,000 gallons came into service in 1952.

Images of construction of the reinforced concrete tower may be found here. The new tower is located at 52º 22' 13" North, 4º 31' 30" East, the old tower was located about ¼ mile to the North.

Any body who has more information on these towers, please leave a comment.

Ferrers

Elveden Visit

2011-08-23T19:51:00.007+01:00

update 2/9/2011: visit now fully booked

Lord Iveagh has kindly granted permission for BWTAS to visit the Elveden Water Tower, a Grade II listed structure from 1895 and one of the most ornate and imposing examples of a Victorian estate tower in the UK.

Wednesday 12th October, 11.00am. Meet at the Estate Offices, London Rd, Elveden, Thetford IP24 3TQ.

Anyone planning to attend MUST let Wil Harvey know before on 01502 478248 or harveys@care4free.net ASAP, as the estate must have names beforehand. There will be no admission otherwise.

Booking priority is given to BWTAS members, then to the public. Space is very limited. We'll announce any changes and further information here and on twitter @bwtas. Non-members can join the society on the day.

Please note all the usual disclaimers apply: this is a industrial building not normally open to the public, it is not suitable for young children, there is no disabled access and the visit is at the visitor's own risk and subject to the directions of the Elveden estate.

For companions not interested in water towers, there is a shop and restaurant on the estate www.elveden.com

Park Hill, Croydon (1867) - Update

2011-08-08T10:05:00.001+01:00

Further to my comments on Croydon Water Tower, I have found additional information regarding this tower, from a copy of “Engineering” 5^th June, 1868. The etching above (click picture for a larger image) comes from Google eBooks and is accompanied by the following text on page 545, that I have transcribed here, as it is a little difficult to read:

Croydon water tower, of which we give engravings on page 543, was erected last year for the Croydon Local board of health, from the designs of Mr. Baldwin Latham C.E., the engineer for the public works of Croydon, by Mr. J.T. Chappen, contractor, of Steyning, Sussex. It was constructed in order to furnish a supply of water to the high level district of Croydon. The tower is a brick building in the Northern style, containing a reservoir in the base which will hold 94,000 gallons of water. This lower level reservoir is on the same level and in connection with the reservoir used to supply water to the low level districts of Croydon. The upper tank in the tower holds 40,000 gallons, and the supply of water for it is taken from the lower reservoir and pumped by a rotary steam engine to the high level. The summit tank is of wrought iron, and the shell is made of ¼ in. plates of iron, strengthened at the horizontal joints with T iron, and the bottom is of ¾ in. plates. The tank is supported partially on the external walls and partly on three hollow central columns, one of which serves to furnish a supply to the high level district, whilst the second forms of the rising main from the engine house, which has been constructed at the foot of the tower, and the third acts as an overflow.

Our engraving includes a perspective view, together with a vertical and two horizontal sections. From these sections the construction of the tile will clearly will be clearly seen. The basement portion forming the lower tank is 27 ft. in diameter inside, and the Water stands in it to a depth of 27 ft. In the centre is a brick pier with stone capping, forming the base of the three central columns already mentioned, and around this the bottom of the reservoir is formed by a brick invert, as above. The bottom rests upon a bed of concrete 4 ft. thick, this concrete being laid on a clay substratum at a depth of 25 ft. below the general ground level. At the bottom of the lower reservoir the walls of the tower are 5 ft. 5 in thick, and the thickness is gradually decreased to 3 ft. 6 in. at the level of the surface of the water. Above this level the thickness of the Walls is diminished from 3 ft. 2 in. at the level of the basement floor to 14 in. at the top of the tower. The lower part of the tar forming the lower reservoir is surrounded by puddle backing, as shown, this backing being carried down to the bottom of the concrete. The total height of the tower, from the bottom of the concrete to the top of the turret, is 125 ft., the top of the turret being thus 100 ft. above the general ground level. The top of the tower itself is 10 ft. lower, or 90 ft. above the ground level. The general design of the tower is exceedingly good, and it is its appearance is very effective. In conclusion, we should state that our engravings have been prepared from a photograph and drawings kindly supplied to us by Mr Latham.

This water tower is located at TQ 33052 65002.

Ferrers

Wassertürme

2011-07-23T09:00:00.010+01:00

This is brilliant - Tim Taylor is building scale matchstick models of all the water towers illustrated in the Hilla and Bernd Becher's book "Wassertürme"! This fantastic book covers water towers in Europe and the U.K. and some from America too. The towers are being built at precisely the size they appear in the Becher's plates, within the book. Hence they are not actually in scale with each other, but are all of a similar size. Tim is transforming their photographical record of the water towers into his own reality, so to speak. Wassertürme is also available in English (ISBN 026202277X) it was dubbed the "Old Testament" at the last BWTAS meeting (Barry Barton's book being the "New Testament").

The exhibition is on now and runs until 29^th July, and is on at 36 St. Mary's Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1SX. Details can be found here. A sample of Tim's towers are presented below...

Ormskirk water tower owner seeks information, offers access...

2011-07-02T13:10:00.004+01:00

image lifted from http://www.uniquepropertyblog.co.uk

Last Thursday, Mike Jones and his friend became the proud owners of the Ormskirk Hospital water tower in West Lancashire.

Now Mike is asking if BWTAS members know anything of its history. All he knows is that it was built in 1860 to provide water to the Poor Law workhouse that then became Ormskirk Hospital in the 1950's.

Mike's taken up the standing offer of complimentary membership of BWTAS to tower owners and he would be happy for members to come and look around before they start conversion although he and BWTAS can't accept any liability for injury etc. In today's litigation culture we are compelled to say that.

Mike's also looking for guidance from any qualified members whilst he plans what to do with this fantastic building.

Please contact him on mjhousebuild@tesco.net or mobile 07751 605384. The tower is off Nightingale Walk, postcode L39 2AZ.

Prior to the sale, Burcough-based property specialists Armistead Barnett were saying they expected the demand for this property to be high.

Sales manager David Cowburn told the Ormskirk Advertiser: “This is an iconic, landmark building which offers a fantastic opportunity for those looking to create their dream home. The Water Tower is of particular architectural interest due to its five storeys, side projectile pipes, arched windows and the large water tank on top. Planning permission has been granted for two flats but there is potential to create one huge five-storey residence. It will make for a stunning home.”

The 175 square meter tower was part of the hospital site purchased and developed by Persimmon Homes as Nightingale Walk.

Nearby residents aslo said they were in favour of the developement. Neil Wynne, of Pinfold Road, said: "I would prefer it if someone moved into the water tower."

Ormskirk is also known for another water tower, the concrete 'UFO' at Scarth Hill to the east of Ormskirk.

Sadly there is also a very large derelict one at Greetby Hill, now obviously a missed development opportunity but in its dotage has become reminicsent of a Victorian folly. An application to convert it into seven apartments in 2001 was later withdrawn. Greetby Now and Then.

The ultimate project?: Cold War water tower up for sale

2011-06-30T11:25:00.000+01:00

When Southern Water unloaded a portfolio of properties in 2004, architect Stephen Luxford purchased the Braithwaite water tower at the former Greenham Common airbase and then got planning permission to convert it into a house. That was a bit of a shock to the local council as they expected buyers would cut it up for scrap and put a traditional house on the plot.

We haven't heard anything for a while but Stephen has just been in touch to tell BWTAS:

"I’ve had the planning extended to 2013 and due to my business being London based, I have given up on carrying the scheme forward myself and the tower is going to auction on 27th July 2011 with www.romans.co.uk – guide price £50,000. "

Stephen told BWTAS before that a build cost estimate is tricky because of unusual nature of the build but at £1200 to £1500/m.sq (quite a high rate) it would be in the region of £160k to £200k.

The auction listing is at http://www.romans.co.uk/Property/40980

Water tower gets robo-clean

2011-06-30T10:01:00.004+01:00

First Water Tower Robot Clean for Panton McLeod

29th June 2011

Water quality engineering firm Panton McLeod has completed another first in its work within the UK’s water sector after cleaning a storage tower with robotic technology.

The firm used its VR600 cleaning robot to clean the interior of a water tower in Wiltshire for Wessex Water while it was still active and in service, ensuring minimal disruption for customers in the region.

The project at Minety Tower near Wootton Basset represented the first time that Panton McLeod has ever used the innovative machine to clean an elevated water storage structure in the UK.

In order to access the facility, the firm had to hire a crane in order to lift the robot to the top of the 35 meters high tower before disinfecting the machine and lowering it into the structure.

A team of operators then manoeuvred the remotely-controlled machine throughout the interior of the structure – in order to remove any build up of natural materials on the floor of the facility. The routine work ensures that the drinking water stored in the tower remains at the highest quality levels.

Paul Henderson, operations director at Panton McLeod, said: “We regularly use the VR600 machine for cleaning service reservoirs and storage tanks across the UK. In recent years, the machine has been a vital part of our work for some of the biggest companies in the water sector, including Scottish Water and Severn Trent Water.

“However, before the project at Minety Tower, we had never used the robot to clean a water tower. It represented a big challenge for our underwater team, but we were able to use our expertise to ensure that the project was a success.

“The most challenging aspect was lifting the robot to the top of the 35 metres tall tower in the first place, so we could insert it into the facility and start the cleaning process. We had to hire a special 55 tonne crane to hoist it to the top, but once this was complete, the rest of the project was fairly straight forward.

“We’re delighted with how smoothly the whole cleaning process was carried out, and proud of our team who ensured that this challenging job was completed swiftly. We’re always happy when we identify new ways to deploy our technology, and we hope that this project will lead to more water tower cleans in the future.”

The VR600 is a special tracked robot that is manoeuvred along the floor of any water storage structure and removes any sediment build up on the floor of the structure. It can also be used to inspect the condition of the water tanks, including checking the walls and interior of the facilities for corrosion or damage.

Panton McLeod also uses a specialist ROV inspection robot which is manoeuvred like a submarine through the water in a service reservoir and is able to inspect the walls of the tank, joints, and the roof soffit for damage or leakage.

Both machines are remotely operated from the surface and fitted with cameras and lighting equipment, allowing staff controlling the sub to assess the interior of the tanks. They are also used solely within clean potable water environments and meticulously cleaned and disinfected prior to every use to ensure they can be safely used in the public water supply, and Panton McLeod conducts rigorous tests before and after each inspection.

More information about the machines and Panton McLeod’s other services for the UK water sector can be found at their website

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You can see the VR600 in action on YouTube

Water tower tanks are traditionally cleaned and serviced by taking them offline, draining them and then sending workers into the tank via the access hatches to sweep and flush the built-up sediment down the overflow/waste line by hand. Sometimes a small rowboat was lowered inside for inspections. We suppose the health and safety regulations now make the cost of cranes to lift robot vacuums (basically high-tech pool cleaners) into the tank a cheaper option.

Take a little, give a little more back

2011-05-30T09:51:00.018+01:00

Water tower hunters are incredibly grateful for the modern tools of online maps and user-contributed maps available today. In the old days, desk-based research consisted of painstakingly poring over paper maps grid square by grid square, noting any instance of 'wr twr' with the certain knowledge that many towers that were marked therein didn't exist any more and many more towers stood majestically but entirely unmarked.

The reasons for this are varied; sometimes they were simply misclassified or missed by the cartographer when the photo survey took place. Or their omission was for reasons of security of the public water supply or that their presence indicated activity which someone would prefer the public knew as little about as possible. Besides their appreciation, unimpeded access to accurate data on water towers has been the raison d'être of BWTAS.

To find towers in the first place, there is now a dizzying array of resources such as Geograph, Flickr and Panoramio that enable people to post for example their travel photos and pin them to a map with exact coordinates. These sites have thousands, perhaps millions, of water towers images as they never seem to fail to attract attention of photographers however, there is the drawback that such user-generated content does vary in quality.

The iconic water tower in Thorpeness, Suffolk known as 'The House in the Clouds' is variously marked up to a quarter mile from its actual location and by many names such as 'The House in the Sky' and, though a minor detail, it is often described as a converted tower when it was purpose-built to be a home that happened to have a huge tank on top. Such mis-information then gets parroted by other web-hunters and also makes its way into printed tourist guides and becomes a 'meme' that is impossible to correct.

What's still missing from the web though is some way of recording all the other 'meta' data about a water tower along with its location and images of it from various viewpoints. BWTAS are not aware yet of a resource - except for Britain's listed structures - that allows recording of all the pertinent details of British towers that could be searchable by form, date of construction, materials, designer, owner and so on along with its location coordinates and images. It would be very handy to have something that could hold all the various kinds of water tower data, from addresses to the ISBNs and reference numbers of sources. If you know of such a tool, please comment or get in touch as many people in the water tower fraternity think Britain's water infrastructure deserves an online database like the Defence of Britain Project.

In the meantime, the BWTAS committee would like to encourage our members and the world at large to show gratitude for the availability of these free resources and so when we take a little, to give a bit more back by contributing to what's out there. As there are so many resources, a bit of discrimination should be considered as to what is worthwhile to support. In the UK the site Geograph has a 'critical mass' of water towers and so new towers should be added there as it is quickly becoming a definitive list.

If you know of a water tower-related museum, heritage site or a water tower open to the public, it would be helpful to get it listed under 'attractions' in the databases Sat Nav manufacturers pre-install such as the Tele Atlas GPS POI database. POI databases are becoming more and more important all the time and have become the de-facto Yellow Pages ® while people are on the move.

The process is easy, just point your browser to the multi-language Tele Atlas Map Feedback web site and follow the 3 easy steps to somewhere listed or have an incorrect listing changed. This site allows you to enter a location by coordinates or post code but the coding of the point of interest for a water tower is limited to 'other'. One drawback on this site is that it doesn't provide much evidence for locating the precise location. You can drop a pin anywhere on the map but it's best to already have the location coordinates written down before you use the site to enter them.

While you’re adding a heritage site to Tele Atlas you can also add it to the NAVTEQ POI Database too. This site has a lot more detail and the maps can switch between satellite images and graphics so you can be sure you are pinning the right place. At the time of writing only one water tower at King Faisal St, Al Foutah, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was listed there.

And, if your community is plagued by HGVs getting stuck in narrow lanes because of reliance on the driver's sat nav, (which is common issue vexing parish councils in Suffolk) then you can record the actual road restrictions on the NAVTEQ site as well, which should re-direct inappropriate traffic away in the future.

Although you are basically working for free for entity who are profiting from your effort, if you have a vested interest in water towers in some way, then it's well worth the trouble to let other people know exactly where these points of interest are.

For more esoteric data, perhaps purely to record the existence of a structure which the OS Map has omitted, an extremely useful resource is OpenStreetMap, a free editable map of the whole world. It allows you to view, edit and use geographical data in a collaborative way from anywhere on Earth. This site is hosted in London at the UCL VR Centre for the Built Environment.

Here is an incredibly nifty video showing how quickly mapping of the Earth has been done by crowd-sourcing since the project began in 2004.

OSM 2008: A Year of Edits from ItoWorld on Vimeo.

At the time of writing this there were only fifty or so towers marked on the Open Street Map, mostly in the USA. Whilst the learning curve to be a map contributor here is steep, it is a short hill. Most importantly, this resource has enormous credibility and is being used in developing countries and by governments to assist all manner of planning and development which mapping for would otherwise be impossible and unaffordable. Just as the reigns of power were snatched from his hands, erstwhile prime-minister Gordon Brown released the British Ordnance Survey base map to OSM to enable the mapping of the United Kingdom.

Water tower fans should be contributing OSM because people are able to use the data in print publications and websites for free whereas it typically costs £50 to license OS data in a small leaflet or website. So for a body wanting to publish a pamphlet of a local heritage trail, that cost, in practise, rather impeded such initiatives.

Tell me, where do you come from my Cotton Eyed To (wer)?

2011-05-27T23:06:00.007+01:00

In 1915, when its population was about 1600, the city of Cotton Plant Arkansas USA was the birthplace of one of the greatest ever Americans, Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

A fine documentary recently shown on the BBC about Sister Rosetta opens with views of the water tower, bearing the proud name "CITY OF COTTON PLANT". It's a fairly ordinary water tower and it never supplied water to the home of this great American artist.

It turns out that the present steel water tower was built with funds from the PWA (Public Works Administration, an agency of Roosevelt's New Deal) in 1935. It replaced an earlier water tower which would have been serving the city at the time Sister Rosetta was born.

At the age of six she was taken by her evangelist mother Katie Bell to Chicago to join Roberts Temple, Church of God in Christ, where she developed her distinctive style of singing and guitar playing.

At the age of 23 she left the church and went to New York to join the world of show business, signing with Decca Records. For the following 30 years she performed extensively to packed houses in the USA and subsequently Europe, before her death in 1973.

In 2008 the state governor of Pennsylvania declared that henceforth January 11th will be Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day in recognition of her remarkable musical legacy.

The present Cotton Plant water tower - beside the town's derelict one room jail - is being nominated to the National Register of Historic Places with local significance under Criterion C as a good example of a 1930s water tower. The Cotton Plant Water Tower is also being nominated to the National Register under Criterion A for its associations with the activities of the PWA in Woodruff County during the 1930s. The Cotton Plant Water Tower is being submitted to the National Register of Historic Places under the multiple-property listing “An Ambition to Be Preferred: New Deal Recovery Efforts and Architecture in Arkansas, 1933-1943.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Company noted in its first map of Cotton Plant that the small, eastern Arkansas city had a four inch main running a short distance along Main Street. This water main served eight one inch hydrants used solely for sprinkling the unpaved street. One water tower, sixty-three feet above ground, held 23,000 gallons of water to help keep the dust to a minimum in this quickly growing town. This first water tower was behind a blacksmith shop north of Main Street and west of Ammon Street in the middle of the block. Though the population, 900 in 1908, reached 1,661 by 1920, the city continued to maintain this simple water system and 23,000 gallon tank. More information from Arkansas Historic Preservation Program

Cotton Plant was first called Richmond and was sparsely settled as early as 1840. William Lynch was the first man to build a store in the area, settling here from Mississippi in 1846. After unsuccessfully seeking application for a post office by the name of Richmond, the town settled on Cotton Plant in 1852. Lynch’s store attracted others and soon the village became the center of economic activity in this relatively isolated part of Woodruff County. It was not until 1887 that the town was formally incorporated.

Everyone comes to Ric's

2011-05-26T13:57:00.001+01:00

Dining at Ric's Grill in Lethbridge, Alberta is truly an extravagant experience; located 150 feet in the air in a converted watertower, Ric's Grill guarantees a dining experience that is so unique, it is the only one of its kind in all of North America.

From the Daily Commercial News and Construction Record:

Lethbridge, Alberta builder spends $2 million to turn water tank into restaurant

PAT BRENNAN, correspondent, LETHBRIDGE, Alta.

Builder Doug Bergen always marvelled at his town’s water tower while growing up in Lethbridge, Alta. It was the tallest structure out on the wide open prairies south of Calgary. So, he was shocked when he learned Lethbridge proposed to scrap the retired water tower.

Bergen, an architectural technician and developer, persuaded the town to sell the water tower to him and more than $2 million later he opened it as one of Canada’s most unconventional restaurants.

He believes it is the only restaurant in the world built into a water tower 12 storeys above the ground. “The town council fought me all the way on this project. They made me jump through some very unreasonable hoops, but on our opening night in 2004 the entire council was there for the free booze and food,” said Bergen.

City engineers claim the tower, built in 1958, had outlived its usefulness and it sat abandoned for several years after a new community reservoir replaced it. “The town’s public works feared it was unstable and should come down, but I had consulting engineers check it out and found it was still strong and sturdy. The municipal guys wouldn’t even climb up the tower’s ladder to check inside the tank,” said 44-year-old Bergen.

“It’s been an iconic structure in Lethbridge and southern Alberta and if I was going to keep it alive I wanted to make it a place that the public could visit and use.”

It took him two years to find a tenant, but eventually Ric’s Grill, a chain of nine steak and seafood restaurants in Alberta and B.C. moved in and has become a popular tourist attraction in Lethbridge.

Bergen designed the 9,000-square-foot restaurant with two levels for eating and a third as a lounge in the bulbous water tank, which used to hold 500,000 gallons of water 36 feet deep. He had to hoist nearly 1,700 tons of washed gravel into the water tank to replace the weight of the water to keep the tank from swaying in the prairie winds.

He cut 32 windows into the side of the tank, plus skylights in the top. A catwalk was built around the outside of the tank so maintenance crews can wash the windows. An elevator was installed in the 8-foot-diameter central shaft of the tower to carry customers up to the restaurant. Eight narrower legs support the weight of the tower. Bergen added large banners between each of the legs, which he rents out as billboards.

A 60-foot-tall transmission aerial was added to the top of the water tower.

Everything but the customers and the Alberta beef steaks had to be lifted to the restaurant by mobile cranes. Steel floors were crafted to create the three levels.

Douglas J. Bergen and Associates designs and builds real estate and commercial projects in Southern Alberta, such as vacation cottages in the Crownest Pass in the Rocky Mountains.

Save the Sudbury water towers campaign

2011-05-25T23:16:00.006+01:00

Mind we are talking Greater Sudbury, Ontario.

When plans were afoot to demolish two iconic water towers known as 'Pearl Street' and 'Pine Street' respectively in Canada's Nickel City, a group of local artists put up an impressive resistance; not by sit-ins and petitions but by mounting exhibitions illustrating the towers' value as cultural objects far beyond their municipal purpose.

Built in 1956, the two towers stayed in use until 1998 when they were decommissioned. Standing tall on sites overlooking the city, the towers turn an otherwise unremarkable cityscape into an interesting panorama.

The present outcome appears to be that the city has voted to remove Pine Street but in 2010 a developer bought Pearl Street and plans to convert it, meantime exploiting its landmark value by erecting 'art boards' (plain speaking: billboards) to raise the revenue to fund this. Many ideas are floating around for turning it into a heritage centre, an art gallery or viewing platform or all three. A feasibility study has been undertaken of various proposals citing the successful redevelopment of other surplus water towers.

This was all started in 2009 by Joel Kimmel, an illustrator originally from Ottawa who became fascinated with water towers on a trip to New York in 2005. He loved them so much that he moved to Brooklyn and roamed the streets beneath the towers for two years. In 2009 he moved to Sudbury where he immediately chose the water towers as his favorite landmarks.

Joel and his chums got 50 other artists and photographers in Sudbury and lovers of water towers from around the world to submit their artwork to be displayed on their website and in an exhibition held in 2010 that raised awareness and showed the City of Greater Sudbury that the people love their towers. Take a look at the blog for some great pictures, then and now.

Whilst the blog hasn't had many updates recently (gosh, we can empathise with that), the very active Facebook group has over 600 members.

Water tower facts:

Pearl Street:
Built by Horton Steel Works Limited, Fort Eriein.
Volume 1,000,000 imperial gallons (3.8million liters- about 17000 bathtubs!)
Height to Underside of Bowl – 76 feet (about 23 meters)
Overall Height - 112 feet (about 34 meters- ? This may be wrong)
Diameter of Bowl – 96 feet (about 29 meters)
Height of Bowl – 36 feet (about 11 meters)
Centre Cylinder – 8 feet diameter
Tower Legs – 4 ft 4 in diameter at 75 ft spacing
330 Tonnes of Steel

Pine Street:

Volume 500,000 imperial gallons (1.9million liters- about 8,400 bathtubs!)
Overall Height- 131ft (about 40 meters)

Church Langley, Harlow: The 'M11 Water Tower'

2011-05-22T14:34:00.002+01:00

Considering the number of times it is mentioned to BWTAS, the editors of this blog have been remiss in telling readers that the Church Langley water tower near Harlow has had its own website for some time.

www.m11watertower.org.uk

Famous for its prominent position next to the M11 motorway and a frequent site for charity abseils, this striking 'bowl in hand' form tower was completed in 1993, making it one of - if not the - last public supply water tower constructed in Britain.

The site's author is one of the original construction workers and would like to hear any stories about the tower.

Joni Mitchell's words save historic water tower

2011-05-22T14:08:00.002+01:00

From the Warrington Guardian 16.5.11:

Warrington Borough Council turns down plans to demolish historic Garnett's Water Tower

By Vicki Stockman

A TOWN centre landmark has been saved after councillors threw out plans to demolish the water tower attached to Garnett’s Cabinet Works (see BWTAS 'war over Warrington').

Developers PTS Property had wanted to knock down the Cairo Street based tower, which is a prominent part of the borough’s skyline, due to safety issues after building had decayed.

But with no details about what would go on the locally listed Bridge Street Conservation Area site, except details in the planning application that a car park could go on the land, councillors refused permission to demolish the entire site.

Cllr Geoff Settle (LAB - Poulton North) said: “I don’t want to be looking back in 12 months time only to be quoting the words of Joni Mitchell saying: "don’t it always seem to be you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot’.”

The committee voted unanimously to refuse the applications.

Mike Batley, speaking on behalf of the developer, told councillors approving the scheme would help reinvigorate the area.

He said: “It gives a great chance to put something back in a conservation area.”

And he added details that a car park could go on the site, mentioned in the planning application, was just an example of what could go on the site and not planned.

Rosalind Stoddart: Open Gallery and Sale

2011-05-21T11:02:00.008+01:00

Rosalind Stoddart, Independent Cultural Engineer and Artist, has announced an open gallery and sale at her Northamptonshire water tower on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 September 2011 showing her work ranging back many years with everything for sale.

Cakes and tea will be sold too.

Profits go towards the art projects she will be running next year: BB and his world.

Opening times 11am to 4pm both days.

The Water Tower
Benefield Road
Brigstock
Kettering
NN14 3JA
United Kingdom

Tel: +44(0)1536 370108
Email: ros@rosalindstoddart.co.uk

Those with an interest in the cultural value of water towers, please note the text bolded (by me) below from the website of Fermynwoods Contemporary Art

FCA was founded by artist Rosalind Stoddart and architect Patrick Duerden towards the end of 1998 as an art gallery exhibiting paintings, sculpture and artists prints for sale. Their motivation was their own abiding passion for contemporary visual art, primarily non figurative work in the tradition of British modernism. Alongside this abiding interest, Rosalind perceived that there was no exhibition space for the most exciting and forward looking of artists in Northamptonshire, nor anywhere in the County to see the work of nationally and internationally important contemporary artists. Rosalind’s vision was to promote the work of the best up and coming artists by showing their work alongside that of established practitioners. She received early encouragement and support from David Holmes, who for many years had run a gallery in his own house in Peterborough before relocating to Cornwall in the mid 90s.

When Rosalind bought the Water Tower from the Fermyn Woods estate in 1994, it was as much for the opportunity to create a large artists studio as it was to realise its potential for domestic use. With FCA’s first exhibition, it was apparent that the building was also eminently suited to use as a gallery, and that alongside the art, the building itself helped to draw visitors to the venue. The garden that was created around Rosalind’s site specific sculpture Enclose completed the profile of the Water Tower as a visitor attraction.

Rosalind once described her practise to the BBC:

"My work encompasses painting sculpture and printmaking. It is often colourful and bold and on all scales from very small to very large.

I seek to emphasise the relationships of abstract form, colour, line and the balance and rhythm of these elements in composition.

My work often is autobiographical because the shapes are arrived at intuitively. Looking inwardly in this way is central to my artistic practice. My work is often site specific.

I trained as a painter at The Byam Shaw School of Painting and Drawing and at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts.

In 2000, I had a solo exhibition of large sculptures at Lyveden New Bield - the National Trust property near Oundle, Northamptonshire. This was part of a Year of the Artist residency.

I live and work in East Northamptonshire from where I also run a gallery, Fermyn Woods Contemporary Art."

Utscheid water tower for sale (now sold)

2011-05-17T23:50:00.008+01:00

Post Script

In July 2011 ownership of the water tower was transferred to Dr Quintin de Jong, Dipl. Ing.

Regular readers of this blog might notice we have featured a lot of German water towers. This is not by design, more an outcome that Germany in the time of its kaisers was on the cutting edge of water infrastructure, often employing British engineers, and now recognises their cultural heritage more than we do in Britain. There is more than one water tower society active on the continent.

One of our members has passed on a email from Maurits and Saskia Campert, a Dutch couple from the Hague, announcing that their holiday home, a water tower in Germany's spectacular 'Eifel Country', near the Luxembourg border, is coming onto the market soon.

Their website www.watertowerutscheid.eu has all the details with interior and exterior photographs.

The database of cultural assets in the Trier region (auto-translated from German) says:

High above the valley located in the beautiful Eifel Utscheid village and standing on the highest level is a 16-meter-high circular water tower built in 1956 in red sandstone by the district water company. Professor Oswald Ungers bought the tower for 1DM (while the land is on a renewable 30 year lease) and converted it in 1993 into an apartment and temporary gallery. The tank and the mechanicals have been removed.

The Camperts sent along more details but BWTAS cannot accept responsibility for their accuracy:

Wasserturm Utscheid Buscht
Water Tower Utscheid
Château d'eau Utscheid Eifel

Zum Wasserturm 1, 54675 Utscheid, RP.

In the German Eifel at 15 kilometers from the Luxembourg border you find our water tower, which was bought in late 2006 by us from Professor Ungers. This is a monument, "Kulturgut” classified as a "Technisches Denkmal" in the Rhineland-Palatinate, Region Trier.

It is ideal as a quiet retreat for two adults without children.

Located at 320 meters altitude in the hills and only 200 meters from a forest in the municipality Utscheid with its 500 inhabitants. All facilities are found nearby in Mettendorf (5 km.), Neuerburg (10 km) and Bitburg (15 km.). Vianden (Lux.) and Echternach (Lux.) at approximately 18 km.

The tower was built in 1956 (original building plans available) and served as a water tower until 1963. In 1993 it was converted into a house by Prof. Oswald Ungers of Cologne.

The costs amounted to DM 200,000 (100,000 euros).

The tower is 15 meters high with 5 levels connected through concrete steps against the outside wall with 4 flights of 13 steps. It has a new slate roof. The tower is built of 70 cm thick red sandstone blocks. The outer diameter at ground level is about 7 meters and the inner diameter about 5.60 meters. The content is about 300 m3.

On the ground floor is the storage room, guest toilet and central heating. On the second level is the fully equipped kitchen with two large steel windows. The next level has a view into the kitchen.

The fourth level is for the bedroom with 200 x 200 bed and bathroom with separate toilet. Here are two large steel exterior windows with hardwood double glazed windows inside. There is a Enev-Air ventilation system. The floors are separated by wooden folding doors.

The showpiece is the 'tower room' with unrestricted views to 60 km in the four directions (e.g. on Golf Club Süedeifel and Segelflugverein Südeifel) by four large steel exterior windows with hardwood double glazed windows inside. The property is available fully furnished.

The total floor area is approximately 80 m2.

The whole tower is heated by a 24 kW boiler Vaillant 242E (suitable for 500 m3) with a buried gas tank of 5000 liters capacity and with cast iron radiators on all floors. Hot water is through the same system. When heated to around 10 degrees through the year, the consumption is about 3000 liters. The system is sufficient for continuous occupation through severe winters.

The tower stands on a plot of 200 m2 (17 x 12) with a lease from the municipality. The ground rent is 500 euros per year until 2023 and can thereafter be further extended for another 30 years for the same annual amount. There is parking for two cars.

The other fixed costs (insurance, local taxes, etc.) are minimal.

Sewage and telephone (DSL possible via parabolic antenna) are installed. There is a paved road to the door.

Buyers without chain only need apply. Because the sale concerns a monument, permission from the authorities for the sale must be obtained so need for a "good standing" is inevitable.

Aldeburgh Park Road: application refused

2011-05-11T19:50:00.000+01:00

Suffolk Coastal District Council have advised a BWTAS member that planning permission to convert Aldeburgh Water Tower into two residential units with a ground floor extension with planted sedum roof and glazed rooftop studio has been refused. We are sure the neighbours are relieved.

Atticus Flinch

2011-04-26T21:50:00.004+01:00

The converted Water Tower in the Millfields Hospital development in Plymouth is for sale in the region of £400K. As the editor and a founder member, I am really honoured that this blog and BWTAS members were mentioned by "Atticus" himself, Roland White, in the Sunday Times profile of the property, even though it tried too hard to make BWTAS the butt of a tired joke; riffing that potential owners might be visited by hordes of water tower "anoraks".

Erstwhile hosts know that our members don't show up uninvited and actually tend to be the corduroy sort of academics, artists, photographers and civil engineers (if I recall the most active members) and that we really don't mind being depicted as "nerds" because, truth be told, that has served to publicise the society. I suppose we'd better stock up on more merchandise for those Sunday Times readers now.

We'd be honoured to be invited in by the owners of the Millfields tower for a picnic as Mr White suggested. Though members are generally more curious about anything in original condition, some members are architects interested in the challenges of tower conversion. We have copious evidence that any sort of accessible tower attracts visitors so it's true a hazard of tower ownership can be public attention, though that is exactly what is valued by some owners. An added benefit of purchasing this tower should have been mentioned by the Sunday Times; that all owners of water towers get complimentary membership of BWTAS.

Membership Map

2011-04-15T22:26:00.000+01:00

We've been playing with the nifty tool Batchgeo.com and if anyone's interested, this is what we get when we drop the BWTAS membership list into the website with a couple of clicks. We have 22 addresses it didn't understand and I didn't include those in Cornwall, USA and Canada and Germany on the crop of the map.

Yes, you can drop in other geo data so you could map all the water towers you know of.

Ahh, that's Bass! Relief as development permission granted for Sleaford Maltings

2011-04-14T21:55:00.003+01:00

BWTAS member David Blackburn reports:

Planning permission was granted yesterday for a major redevelopment that should secure the future intact of the former Bass Maltings site at Sleaford, Lincolnshire.

This massive 13 acre listed Grade 2* complex comprises many brick buildings rising up six storeys There is a fine water tower almost hidden within. Last used as a poultry factory, but derelict for many years, it's over 50 years since it last produced malt for the brewing industry. There have been several failed restoration and redevelopment schemes and the site has decayed badly but it now looks as though the complex has a future. A new scheme by developer Gladedale proposes shops, office space and 220 houses and apartments . Hopefully there will be a restored - and accessible - water tower as a centrepiece.

According to the BBC, North Kesteven District Council said it hoped the project would create 500 jobs and bring millions in investment.English Heritage had classified the Maltings as the largest at risk building in England.

The organisation worked with the developer to protect as much of the original structure as possible. Simon Cocks from developer Gladedale Estates said: "We are not altering the external elevations at all. "There will be some internal demolitions but that is mostly taking down the fire damaged sections." The council's Economic Development Manager, Alan Gray, emphasised the importance of the project. "The Maltings scheme is an integral part of the wider Sleaford South East Regeneration project which has schemes which, when taken together, represent the biggest and most economically-significant commercial investments Sleaford has seen since the opening of the Navigation more than 200 years ago."

It is expected work will get under way in the autumn.

A commendable amount of detail of the proposals and history is at the developer's website which says:

The former Bass Maltings were completed in 1907 and were in use for their original purpose until 1959. Ten years later, the first fire occurred and then the Site was purchased by G W Padley for chicken rearing and vegetable
processing and freezing. There was a serious fire in 1976 and, in 1982,
Padley’s applied for consent to demolish all of the buildings. Their application
was refused and their subsequent appeal was rejected and the listing of the
buildings was upgraded to II*. In the 1990s, poultry farming ceased due to
health and safety reasons. There was a third fire in 1999 and in 2006 the
Site was purchased by Gladedale, the current developers.

The fact that so much of the buildings stand intact is testimony to the high
standard of the original build. The total fire-damaged area amounts to
approximately 25% of the total built space. The extent of damage is uneven
across the Site and five of the nine blocks remain undamaged by fire. Most of
the buildings have been altered to some extent, whether through fire
damage or physical change relating to later uses. The Site has been subject
to some vandalism and the upper parts of the buildings suffer from pigeon
infestation. Apart from the fire-damaged areas, the buildings are generally in good condition. The brickwork is mostly sound as are the floors, except in the kilns where they are missing. Roof structures are generally intact were away from the fire-damaged areas. Some fixed machinery remains in situ but almost all moveable machinery has been removed. Blocks 1 and 2 retain the most complete collection of surviving machinery and equipment.

Paint the water tower? Don't be Daffs...

2011-04-14T00:01:00.013+01:00

Lifted with apologies from Wales Online.

The old water tower at Cardiff Central station could become the ultimate canvas for an acclaimed Barry-born artist Dan Llywelyn Hall (twitter @danllywelynhall).

The former Sunday Times Young Artist of the Year has submitted plans to transform the Grade II-listed structure into a colourful mural. He says the epic work – titled The Full Stop – will be a celebration of pivotal moments in Welsh history.

The 30-year-old has been in talks with Arriva Trains Wales, which leases the station from Network Rail, and this week submitted a planning application 10/02208/DCI to Cardiff council.

Mr Hall told the South Wales Echo he was excited by the prospect of the artwork welcoming thousands of rail passengers into the capital each day. “For most my life I have seen the water tower as a prominent structure in our capital,” he said. “Any time I would arrive into Cardiff it almost denotes the start of the city – like a garrison. It stands on the edge of the river and is the first building I notice every time I arrive into Cardiff and usually the last thing I observe when I leave. It struck me that this beautiful listed building needed rejuvenation and could be transformed into a positive confident statement about our capital.”

It is thought the abandoned tower is about 80 years old and was used to replenish the water supplies of steam locomotive engines.

Different moments in history would be painted in the divided panels and the circular turret will amalgamate to form a celebration of the land.

A spokesman for Arriva said: “We have had notice of his intentions to revamp the water tower, but we have seen no designs and he was advised to seek further advice from Cardiff council.”

A council spokeswoman said its Development Control had this week started a consultation on the proposal. If approved, monuments body Cadw, which has the right to call in applications on listed buildings, will then have the final say.

Mr Hall hopes to start painting in the early summer and expects it will take up to two months to complete.

Talks have begun with arts organisations and individual donors about sponsoring the project. Mr Hall, who recently had an exhibition at Cardiff’s National Museum of Wales and painted portraits of World War I veterans Harry Patch and Henry Allingham, said the work would be a gift to Cardiff.

“It’s for the people who come into Cardiff each day. I want it to promote our city and our country,” he said. “There is nothing that is symbolic or celebratory of our city and I hope it will give people a lift when they arrive in Wales.”

When BWTAS visited the tower in 2010, it wasn't exactly attractive or exciting. A previous mural of daffodils, Wales' national flower had weathered and faded.

Comments from the public show the strength of feeling water towers evoke:

"It is ridiculous to have this as a Grade 2 listed building. The thing should have been pulled down. It is an eyesore, whether painted or not."

(These) structures should be preserved for history - history needs to take account of the mundane as well as the extraordinary.

This is a marvelous opportunity to revive a very important structure in the heritage of our country. It will be most welcome to all the communters and passers by. My old man worked on the railway and always maintained the water tower was one of the finest examples in europe. Cardiff has more to it than simply erecting flats at every corner. We need to maintain our heritage and keep our artists in support.

It's about time something was done with the tower its had faded daffs on it for years now, I'm looking forward to seeing this when it done, I think it will look fab.

War over Warrington

2011-04-13T14:31:00.005+01:00

Lifted from several stories in the Warrington Guardian with apologies:

The future of the historic 1906 Garnett’s Water Tower is likely to be decided tomorrow, Thursday, 14th April 2011.

Developers PTS Property have submitted a plan to Warrington Borough Council to demolish the attractive Italianate crenellated tower and surrounding buildings and replace it with a temporary car park.

But objectors say the building is crucial to the heritage of the town centre.

Councillors will discuss the plans at a meeting of the development control committee in the Town Hall on Thursday. The meeting starts at 6.30pm

Preservation campaigners will learn then if their last-ditch bid to stop the demolition of the town centre landmark is successful.

Garnett’s Cabinet Works is between Cairo Street and Barbauld Street. Inscriptions on the tower say the company was founded in 1824 but the tower and factory was built in 1906. According to Geograph: the factory's founder Robert Garnett was born in 1830 in Penketh, Warrington. He was a generous local benefactor to many churches and charities and even laid the foundation stone at Penketh methodist church.

The water tower connected to the building would be pulled down as part of plans for the derelict site. The developers say that redevelopment would not be economically viable due to the poor conditions of the building and others on the site and it is a hazardous in its present condition.

Now English Heritage has put its weight behind campaigners fighting to save it. It has called for the withdrawal of the plan for the tower, which is listed locally under the Bridge Street Conservation area.

Anna Boxer, historic buildings inspector for English Heritage, told Warrington Borough Council in its submission: “Once a heritage asset is lost it cannot be replaced and the loss has a cultural, environmental, economic and social impact. “Any loss within the conservation area should have a clear and convincing justification.”

The letter goes on to observe there is no indication of what is planned for the redevelopment of the site long-term. Mrs Boxer added: “The applicant is correct in saying that replacement of a demolished building with a similar one should not make part of the justification.

“An empty site is however not an enhancement of the conservation area, and especially not when the proposal is the loss of a principal building which would be categorised as substantial harm that potentially threatens the very basis of the designation.”

One of the residents hoping to halt the plans to demolish the water tower is Lymm resident Susan Gabathuler, aged 74. She said: “I’m very upset to think they might be doing that. It’s the history of Warrington and it needs to be preserved. They have a duty to keep these places open if it’s in a conservation area.”

John Rowlinson, managing director of PTS Property, said: “Victoria Works are constantly being broken into, despite efforts by ourselves and the police. Due to safety reasons, the poor state of the building and the fact the refurbishment is not economically viable and after consultation with the police, fire service, town wardens and the planning department, we feel we have no other option but to demolish the building... Hopefully, in time, it will help spark a regeneration of this area.”

Other residents have spoken out against the plans that will also see the council offices and the Cairo Street Sunday School room, based by Cairo Street, being demolished too.

Gill Hoff, of Bridgewater Avenue, Latchford, is one of those who is opposing the plans. The 31-year-old said: “They are very important historically and Garnett’s Water Tower is a very important part of the skyline. “This is the cultural quarter, this is supposed to be a very beautiful historic place.”

The owners of the site had taken on the Victoria Works and building in 2005 and added the Cairo Street Sunday School and council offices to its stable in 2007.

After gaining planning permission for the redevelopment of the site into retail, leisure and office space since 2006 the developers PTS have been unable to find any companies interested in taking on the property.

And since taking over they have spent in excess of £50,000 on maintenance and security for the sites, which have been plagued by a lead thief, drug addicts using it as a den and a free running group called Wolf Pack using the site.

Has anyone pointed out that's just what the area needs; a materials recycling scheme, a drug treatment centre and a gymnasium could be the key to area regeneration?
And any reader of this site will see that other developers have tried to preserve water towers on their site because there's no better landmark or billboard for a place than its water tower. Ed.

images: Warrington Guardian, Geograph

Potsdam Wasserturm Bistro

2011-04-12T20:47:00.001+01:00

The water tower at the main railway station of Potsdam, Germany is all that remains of what was Germany's largest reichsbahnausbesserungswerk (railroad repair workshops) or just abbreviated as R.A.W.

It was built in 1838 with the construction of the railway line between Berlin and Potsdam. The R.A.W. was the first German railway repair shop and over the years developed into one of the largest companies in Potsdam with the founding of the German Reich in 1871.

Potsdam 1930

After WWII, the repair workshops closed and were abandoned to decay. The construction of the new central train station began in 1997 when the old roundhouse was demolished but the old water tower, as well as some historical operating warehouses were protected and rebuilt. In 2007 redevelopment of the former RAW site started in earnest. The remaining buildings were renovated along with the historic train station and the water tower was converted into a café and bistro.

Wasserturm Cafe Bistro

Friedrich-Engels-Str. 99
14473 Potsdam
Tel.: (0331) 2011

Thanks to BWTAS member David Blackburn for sending this in. Though German WT seem to be all the rage on the blog at the moment, it's just because they can be like buses too.

Waddya Schwante?

2011-04-10T18:14:00.003+01:00

John Ahouse, who frequently corresponds with BWTAS about items in the USA mentioned a small but attractive water tower he had seen in Schwante, Germany.

Image source

Schwante is a small town about 15 km north of Berlin. It possesses a "palace" (more of a country house), a Dutch-type windmill, a church and this water tower among its modest sights. Schwante's brief fame came about when human rights protesters gathered there in October 1989 to found an independent political party, the SDP. As this was clearly illegal under the monolithic Communist regime, they were taking their chances. Their endeavour survived the fall of the Berlin Wall in November, however, and became the East German version of the SPD in the big political shakeout occurring over the next nine months.

Chancellor Helmut Kohl's CDU, the party in power in West Germany, drubbed all the left-leaning parties and splinter parties in the first free all-German elections that next year by promising prosperity for all. Thus the SDP was short-lived though the traditional all-German SPD is the #2 party in the Bundestag. Having played a role in the nascent freedom and human rights movement in the GDR is a good thing, nevertheless, to be famous for.

Local information (in German)

Germany doesn't Metz about with water towers...

2011-04-10T09:41:00.008+01:00

The French city of Metz (pronounced 'Mess') is described in several English travel articles as an overlooked destination which rewards the visitor with an extraordinary richness of architecture and culture. Competing for attention alongside the Saint-Etienne Cathedral and a branch - quite literally with its wooden roof - of the new Pompidou Centre is the Metz Water Tower, one of the symbols of the many periods when Germany and France fought for possession of the city over the last 2000 years.

France For Visitors says: The town's origins go back at least to Roman times, when, as now, it stood astride major trade routes. On the death of Charlemagne it became the capital of Lothar's portion of his empire, managing to maintain its prosperity in spite of the dynastic wars that followed. By the Middle Ages it had sufficient wealth and strength to proclaim itself an independent republic, which it remained until its absorption into France in 1552.

A frontier town caught between warring influences, Metz has endured more than its share of historical hand-changing. In 1870, when Napoléon III's defeated armies were forced to surrender to Kaiser Wilhelm I, it was ceded to Germany. It recovered its liberty at the end of World War I in 1918, only to be re-annexed by Hitler in 1940 before being liberated again by Allied troops in 1944.

Metz is not at all the dour place you might expect from its northern geography and industrial background – indeed it deserves its self-styled title of "Ville jardin" or Garden City, with impeccable flower-beds, the warm hues of mustard-yellow stone buildings and the waters of the Moselle all making for an appealing cityscape. The university founded here in the 1970s is at least partly responsible for its liveliness.

Wikipedia adds: The German Imperial District, or New City (French: Ville Nouvelle), was built during the first annexation of Metz by Otto von Bismarck into the German Empire. In order to germanify the city, Emperor Wilhelm II decided the creation of a new district shaped by a distinctive blend of Germanic architecture, including Renaissance, neo-Romanesque or neo-Classical, mixed with elements of art nouveau, art deco, Alsatian and mock-Bavarian styles. Moreover, the Jaumont stone, commonly used everywhere else in the city, was replaced with stones used in the Rhineland, like pink and grey sandstone, granite and basalt. The district features noteworthy buildings including the water tower, the impressive railway station, the Central Post-Office, the Mondon square (former Imperial square), and the large Foch avenue (former Kaiser Wihelm Ring). The district was renovated during the 2000s and now displays street furnitures designed by Philippe Starck and Norman Foster.

photo information
ID Number 100677
Description Metz Station - Water Tower
Photographer Jacques Mossot
Source www.structurae.de

Horton Water Tower (Epsom): demolition applied for

2011-04-08T09:38:00.004+01:00

London and Quadrant Housing Association, which owns the 12-storey Horton Water Tower, in Cavendish Walk, Epsom, have apparently applied to demolish the controversial building and replace it with plants and trees.

Nearby residents are divided, many favour demolition because it is an "eyesore" although other argue it should remain untouched because of its history and character. It should be pointed out that this water tower existed long before a housing development was built around it. Eventual demolition was never part of any application to develop the site and some had questioned the wisdom of this.

BWTAS receives many requests for assistance or a view on such matters to bolster both sides of the argument. Although our members are usually saddened by the demise of any water tower, generally BWTAS does not collectively issue opinions on specific planning or preservation matters such as application for listing, conversion or demolition because the views of our members are quite diverse. Some in BWTAS might find the demolition objectionable, some might not and accept it as a pragmatic solution. What we can do, however, is to raise awareness of the issues and encourage debate.

Reading this blog will prove that water towers have a rich history and cultural value and that many potential forms of reuse exist besides conversion into accommodation; from climbing walls to camera obscura. Water towers are a magnet for economic development and (as their detractors argue) for both social and anti-social activity.

Objections to the demolition must be made to Epsom and Ewell Council, before 14th April 2011.

10/01277/COU Full Planning Permission

Location: Horton Water Tower Cavendish Walk Epsom Surrey

Proposal: Demolition of the Horton Water Tower and change of use of the

site from water tower (Sui Generis) to landscape amenity space

(Sui Generis) (Description amended 30.03.2011).

Contact Officer: Mr John Robinson

Type: Q20 - Other, Change of use

Anger at homes covered by water tower demolition dust

2011-04-05T14:07:00.002+01:00

The demolition of the Brightlingsea water tower has angered its neighbours, not because of the loss of what could have been converted into a useful amenity but because the dust created by the demolition contractor - who is apparently not using any dust suppression methods such as water hoses or shielding - is raining down on their homes, cars and gardens.

Concrete dust contains high concentrations of silica which can irritate the lungs and if exposure is great enough it can cause silicosis.

Wikipedia says out that the concrete dust released after earthquakes (and ins other disasters such as in the 9/11 attacks) has shown to have detrimental health effects and should be considered hazardous.

From the Daily Gazette

RESIDENTS say their homes and street are being covered with concrete dust from the demolition of a water tower.

They claim the powder has covered everything from plants to their cars and they have to keep the windows shut because the problem is so bad.

The disused water tower, in Church Road, Brightlingsea, is being pulled down in preparation for a new residential development.

Demolition work has been under way for a couple of weeks and is expected to last another month.

Householders told the Gazette something needed to be done to stop the residue affecting them.

Muriel Jefford, 80, who lives next to the site, said: “I’ve had to park my car in the car port and keep it covered up because there has been so much dust.

“The whole road is covered in concrete and obviously we’re breathing it in whenever we go outside.

“The problem is not the building that will take place there, it’s the way the demolition is being done, with no shielding.”

Neighbour Elizabeth Scott, 79, lives opposite the water tower with her husband Ian, also 79, and said: “The dust is horrendous.

“We have to keep our windows closed, but it’s still getting indoors.

“I’m worried about the health and safety aspect too.

“There are hundreds of children walking past every day on their way to the Colne Community School nearby and there’s no protection for them.”

Elvanite Recycling, based at Hythe, Colchester, is carrying out the demolition.

General manager William Bailey did not want to comment.

Tendring Council said it had received one complaint about dust from the water tower site, on March 21.

Nigel Brown, the council’s communications manager, said: “One of the officers in environmental services went out to speak to the contractor, which had already stopped work as it recognised it did not have the correct dust suppression equipment.”

He said the council was not aware dust was still an issue, but would send an officer back, to speak to the company and try to resolve any problems.

Park Road, Aldeburgh, Suffolk: Planning applications update

2011-04-04T15:04:00.005+01:00

Built for a speculative land development that never happened and not as many presume for the Aldeburgh Hospital, Priors Hill Water Tower in Park Road has been disused since the 1980's. Northumbrian Water sold the tower at auction in 2007 for £407,000.

It's a great example, probably the finest locally, of an estate tower. Few 'public' water towers of this era anywhere else can match it for the quality of detailing and its aesthetic appeal.

Now in the possession of a Hertfordshire pharmacist, two planning applications have been made recently for conversion of the Grade II listed structure into a pair of flats. Naturally neighbours that were unconcerned about an uninhabited structure overlooking their property are now anxious about privacy and light pollution from the apetures cut into the facade and the additional cupola spoiling their vistas and so are mustering support for objections which have to be made by April 8th, 2011.

Further details see the original BWTAS blog post.

Bye Bye Brightlingsea

2011-04-04T10:57:00.002+01:00

Word has come to BWTAS that the water tower at Brightlingsea, Essex is being demolished to make way for a housing development.

Brightlingsea is better known for Bateman's Tower a folly built in 1883.

Demolition image from Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/petejk1994/5556440528/in/photostream/

We don't know when the water tower was built but the plans in the Essex Record Office say it was designed by Broderick & Partners, civil engineers.

Minutes from Brightlingsea Town Council:

563. PLANNING APPLICATIONS:

The following applications had been received by Tendring District Council:

10/00743/FUL Roundwood Restorations, Brightlingsea Water Tower, Church Road, Brightlingsea – Demolition of the existing Water Tower and machinery replaced with development of 11 houses on the old Water Tower site, Church Road, Brightlingsea

Brightlingsea Town Council consider this application to be a great improvement on the previous applications and have no objection to this one but would like the District Council to take into consideration the following observations (that include representations of local residents):-

• The non hazardous removal of the Water Tower.
• There could be serious traffic problems due to car parking in Church Road.
• The sight of dwellings at three stories is too tall.
• The hedgeline should be lengthened along Lodge Road to the south western corner to improve landscaping and screening.
• The hedgeline along Church Road in front of the dwelling facing the road would improve the street scene, landscaping and improve the problem of overlooking.
• The nearby residents would like prior notification as to when this development is likely to start please.

Chateau d'eau Montmartre

2011-03-31T23:44:00.003+01:00

Founder member Brian Light sent BWTAS a postcard while on holiday:

Our weekend in Paris via Eurostar included this gem which of course had not impinged on my conciousness twenty years ago when I was last there. Directly behind the Sacre Coeur atop the hill at Montmartre sits the water tower, obviously still in use, every bit as majestic as the three domes of that edifice.

The Paris water company puts its phone number on signs at the base of the water tower so a search for 0974 506 507 found this interesting page and the delightful knowledge that the French recognise their significant contribution to water engineering and now offer tours of the Parisian 'water route'.

Translated from original website with the help of Google:

Launched in April 2008 by Eau de Paris in partnership with five specialized agencies, the program "Water Courses in Paris" aims to offer the public, especially users in Paris, a historic tour of Paris and its neighborhoods with water as the theme. Major parts of Parisian water heritage such as Fountain House, the North Views of the Sources or large storage tanks built at the time of Belgrand are part of the program.

The tour traces the history of water in Paris since the Romans, who built in the second century the first waterworks in Paris by the Aqueduct Lutece up the most modern facilities currently in operation.

These visits make the public aware of the value of fresh water through centuries of inventions and efforts made over time to supply the city. By understanding where water comes from, its history and how it is produced and distributed today, the value of water infrastructure can be understood by public and at the same time, the works and memory of men and women who have worked for the water supply of Paris.

Tours require registration, please contact:

the Water Pavilion at 01 42 24 54 02 or email: pavillondeleau@eaudeparis.fr

Free tours

Participation in the water tour is now free.

Each tour lasts approximately 2:00 hours. The hikes last about 3:00.

Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Pets are not allowed.

Advance registration for some of the water tour is mandatory for safety.

This concerns mainly visits giving access to the inside of old buildings or still active water infrastructure.

Download the brochure of the Water Course (in French) .

East Dereham Victorian Tower

2011-02-24T18:39:00.009Z

Brown & Co. kindly let BWTAS photograph the Victorian Tower they have for sale (details here). This large Victorian tower has great potential - but also will require a great deal of effort in order to realise it, the result could be worth it. This handsome tower is not so photogenic inside: The ground floor consists of two large rooms, the largest containing the capped borehole, probably the original one sunk in 1881. Stairs take you up to the second level, consisting of 5 rooms. These were used as office accommodation by Anglia Water, heated by open fires. From here a very steep staircase, virtually a ladder, takes you to a trapdoor through which you access the void beneath the tank, that is supported by two immense steel beams. Unfortunately I was unable to find any markings on the ironwork that would indicate the maker. A second, shorter stair/ladder gives access to the tank. This reveals a very interesting aspect: the tank is internally flanged! Normally this is done to provide a more aesthetically pleasing exterior, however this tank is totally enclosed, and in such cases would normally be externally flanged to ease cleaning. The 30,000 gallon tank has a single compartment, unlike most modern towers where it would be partitioned so that it may be drained while maintaining supply.Plans of the existing tower may be found here. The tower is located in Cemetery Road, at O.S. Grid Ref. TF 99112 14218. More information may be found about this tower in a previous post on 23^rd January 2009. Photographs on this site have been re-sized for the web, the complete gallery may be viewed by clicking here, where the pictures, at full resolution, may be accessed.

Ferrers

Calling water tower owners: photography student willing to trade images for access

2011-02-01T08:35:00.004Z

Colin Baird is in his final year of a degree in professional photography at Gloucester University.

For his final year exhibition project he is concentrating on water towers in the UK. As a major part of this he would like to photograph the interiors as well as exteriors of towers that have been converted into living or office spaces.

In return, he can offer his images which will taken on a large format film camera.

If you are able to assist him directly or give him any leads, please contact him on 07553 408253 or 01666 860703 or email colinbaird [at] btinternet.com

This is a tower at Rodbourne, near Malmesbury, Wiltshire close to where Colin lives. Located at ST 93212 83368, it was built in 1957. If you have any additional info about the tower please leave a comment.

All the best towns have a museum in their water tower

2011-01-30T22:20:00.004Z

Western Springs is a suburb of Chicago located in Cook County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 12,493. It is twinned with Rugeley, best known perhaps as the home of Rugeley B Power Station whose cooling towers dominate the Staffordshire landscape.

In November, 2007, BusinessWeek.com listed Western Springs second in a list of the 50 best places to raise children. The rankings were based on five factors, including school test scores, cost of living, recreational and cultural activities, number of schools and risk of crime.

The Historic Water Tower was constructed in 1892 . On December 12, 1891, the village president at the time, Mr. Wickerson, sought the village's right to place a water tower on land that had been originally known as "Block A". On January 27,1892 Charles and Ruth Collins donated this land, "Block A" to the village of Western Springs.

The design and construction of the Tower was a collaboration between Benzette Williams and Edgar Williams of the firm of Williams and Williams (which later became known as MacRichie and Nichol) and Ethan Philbrick. All three were civil engineers and residents Western Springs. Benezette Williams and Ethan Philbrick eventually served as village presidents. The cost of the Tower combined with the sewer and pumping system as well as the pumping station was $79,119.10. 156 carloads of stone were ordered from the Chicago and Naperville Stone Company. Each stone was cut and shaped by hand on site. The Tower was constructed to be 112.5 feet high at its tallest point and 36.5 feet in diameter. The walls at its base are 6 feet thick and the original water tank held 133,000 gallons of water. The Tower itself served as the village offices, police department, jail and police magistrate court until 1968, when all were moved to a new administration building at 740 Hillgrove.

In 1991 a near disaster occured when the water tower museum was struck by lightning and caught fire.

More information is available from the Western Springs Historical Society website and

25 Moments In Western Springs History.

Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon: Water Tower Artist

2011-01-19T12:29:00.006Z

A surgeon and art collector in Canada has contacted BWTAS with a query about a watercolour by the 19th century artist Barbara Bodichon he recently purchased. Its title is "a water tower in a verdant landscape".

He asks if anyone knows in what country water towers of this kind might be found as Bodichon travelled extensively throughout Europe, America, Africa and the Middle East and maintained homes in Cornwall and Algiers.

I am grateful to the doctor for alerting us to that Barbara Bodichon can be admitted to the Pantheon of water tower artists as she is one of the most remarkable women of the 19th Century.

In 2007 Joan Wilkinson wrote an online review of Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon – Feminist, Artist and Rebel by Pam Hirsch, Pimlico 1999, ISBN 0-7126-6581-1

Here is a nineteenth century Unitarian woman who deserves a biography such as this written by Pam Hirsch.

The book demonstrates her significance as a woman who believed passionately in education, the rights of women to have a profession, legal property and access rights for women within marriage and divorce as well as someone who pursued her own career as a successful artist and intrepid traveller. She was Florence Nightingale's first cousin and George Eliot's closest friend. The book places her in the centre of many reforming groups and it is only surprising that there has been so little written about this key figure when those who had lesser impact at the time have become famous.

Barbara Smith had a solid Unitarian and political pedigree. Her Grandfather, William Smith (1756-1835) campaigned in Parliament for the abolition of slavery alongside William Wilberforce even though this was against his own business interests. He also worked for the repeal of religious disabilities and the reform of Parliament being the acknowledged leader of the Dissenting cause in Parliament. Benjamin, his son and Barbara's father, followed as a reforming MP and a man committed to the improvement of society. Education was close to Benjamin's heart and like his daughter later, financed the development of schools at different levels.

However, Barbara's origins were unconventional in that her father never married her mother, Anne Longden, who was considered of lowlier origins than the Smith family, being a milliner from Alfreton. They went on to have five children, Barbara being the eldest. Although Barbara's mother died in 1834 leaving a young family behind, Ben continued to care for his children and when he died in 1860 his family was left very comfortably off which allowed Barbara to maintain her independence and continue her financial commitment and interest in improving the opportunities for women.

In 1836 the children were moved from Sussex to Pelham Crescent on the sea front at Hastings. In 1837 Barbara joined the hustings in her father's colours when he stood as a candidate for Norwich. He didn't have as long a parliamentary career as his father but he faithfully attended and continued to support liberal causes.

Barbara and her sisters were educated from 1838 to 1841 at a Unitarian secondary school run by the Misses Wood in Upper Clapton, London. At this time teaching at this level as a career for women was little understood. From the age of twenty-one Barbara was to make a significant contribution in raising the level and opportunities for women in the educational sphere.

In 1848 her father gave her the title-deeds to his own educational experiment, Westminster Infant School. She visited many different types of school, noting the poor quality of the teachers and their methods. She envisaged a school along the lines of James Buchanan who followed the work of Robert Owen. She wanted children to draw more on their imagination rather than being bound by the Bible and learning by rote. She recognised the need to find a mistress who would share her ideals and spread the word amongst her large network of Unitarian friends and contacts. In 1853 Elizabeth Whitehead, a solicitor's daughter from Chelsea responded and the first task she was given was to train herself 'for the great experiment' (p.73) by visiting the best schools in London. After attending the weekly lectures of William Ellis and attending the Birbeck School in Peckham for six months, on 6th November, 1854, the Portman School was opened, with a progressive curriculum, educating boys and girls together, a new venture in education for middle class children. Barbara felt that the teaching of religion should be done in churches rather than schools and that a secular education would encourage tolerance amongst faiths and denominations. This was certainly a radical move.

Barbara's contribution to popular education was recognised when she was only one of twelve women asked to give expert advice to a Royal Commission in 1858.

Barbara deplored the lack of good training for women teachers and whilst most people recognise the work of Emily Davies as the driving force in establishing Girton College fewer realise that it was the brain child of Barbara Bodichon, who was the founder along with Emily Davies. It was through the contacts which Barbara had, plus her own money, £1,000, which allowed the project of providing a University education for women, to move forward. Emily Davies was an excellent committee person and secretary, but was autocratic in approach, whereas Barbara had amazing people skills and was able to smooth over many of the teething problems. Although Barbara wished to locate the first college in Cambridge Emily proceeded to rent Benslow House in Hitchen in 1869. On 16th October five female students undertook the same course as Cambridge undergraduates. It must be remembered though that it wasn't until 1881 that women from Girton and Newnham Colleges were admitted to the BA examinations, 1921 before women were granted titles of degrees, 1923 before they were admitted to university lectures and laboratories and 1948 before Cambridge would admit women to full membership.

On 15th May 1872 seventeen people, including Barbara, signed the Articles of Association for the new Girton College. Building started in 1872 and in October 1873 nine Hitchin students plus six new ones moved into the new building and thus Girton College became a reality.

We often take for granted the contribution which Florence Nightingale made in establishing training for nurses but it is less well known that Barbara encouraged Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor in America, to come over to England to help open up the medical profession for women.

Perhaps Barbara's greatest love was in being a professional artist. In 1849 she attended art classes given by Francis Cary at Bedford College. She went on to have connections with the Pre-Raphaelites and other women artists of the time. In 1856 she visited Algiers for the first time and found the change of light challenged her to develop her painting skills. She painted and drew both for exhibition and book illustration. In 1857 she founded the Society of Female Artists and also married Dr Eugene Bodichon, a French physician, from which time she spent the winter months at their home in Algiers and the summer months in England. It was never really a marriage of like minds and as time went on Barbara spent more time in England and didn't look forward to returning to her home in Algiers in spite of having her sister settled close by. In 1863 she built Scalands Gate on the family estate in East Sussex with the wish to create a space for her husband who appreciated nature and his own company. He appeared a strange man to many, continuing to wear Arabic attire even in England which prompted many of Barbara's friends to think he remained in his night clothes throughout the day. Before dying in 1885 he was spending more time in Algiers alone, increasingly suffering from dementia.

In 1858 along with her close friend, Bessie Parkes, Barbara founded the English Woman's Journal and the group of women connected with this project developed an agency to try and establish new types of employment for middle class women. However, with Barbara in Algiers for much of the winter, the group missed her mediating skills. On her return to England each year she was increasingly concerned with resolving the differences of opinion and working practices between the women involved on a day to day level.

Barbara never lost her enthusiasm for working towards a fairer society for women. In 1854 she wrote and had published: A Brief Summary of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women which challenged the laws whereby young children were considered the property of the father, who could, at a whim, forbid the mother having access. Later in 1866 she petitioned Parliament for the enfranchisement of women property holders and published: Reasons for the Enfranchisement of Women.

In 1875 she suffered her first stroke but retained her interest in the cause of women and particularly women and education. In 1884 she gave another £5,000 to Girton College. In 1891 Barbara died leaving a further £10,000 to Girton – a fitting legacy from an amazing nineteenth century rebel and reformer.

The biography by Pam Hirsch raises the profile of this Unitarian figure but much more than that it sets her in the context which looked back to the ideas and writings of Mary Wollstonecraft and forward to the suffragette movement and the twentieth century feminist movement. Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon's life was embedded in the social, political and cultural events of the nineteenth century and Pam Hirsch successfully shows this key figure as being the driving force behind many projects working for reform, especially in the spheres of education and political rights for women.

Bodichon's husband Eugene also warrants a mention. The Times of London carried his obituary on 31 January 1885.

Dr Eugene Bodichon, one of the last of the little group known as the `Republicans of 30` and the author of many valuable works on Algeria, died at Algiers on the 28th inst. aged 74. Born of a noble Breton family at Nantes, Dr Bodichon early showed that adherence to Republican principles shared by his intimate friends, Ledru Rollin, Louis Blanc, Guepin of Nantes, and others, and was associated with them in their work of political propaganda. Dissatisfied with the conditions of things in France, he settled in Algeria 40 years ago, devoting himself to gratuitous services as a physician among the poor, and amassing materials for his `Considerations sur l`Algerie`, cited by the late eminent historian M Heni as second in interest and importance to the writings of the late General Daumas. In 1848, on being appointed Corresponding member of the Chamber of Deputies for Algiers, he immediately advised the liberation of the slaves throughout the province of Algier, which was done. On the establishment of the Empire his movements were closely watched and the types of his work `De l`Humanite` were broken up by the Imperial police. The work, which contains a striking study of the first Napoleon, was afterwards published at Brussels. Dr Bodichon was one of the first to draw attention to the valuable febrifugal qualities of the eucalyptus globulus, and of late years entirely devoted himself to its dissemination throughout the colony.

More details about both of them can be found in the scan from a contemporary directory of biography below.

But to answer the doctor's question: it is very hard to tell from this rather impressionistic painting whether this is a contemporary water tower or perhaps, like many of Bodichon's paintings, a view of ruin, in which case I'd hazard a guess it was a Roman cisterna, which is definitely a kind of water tower and could be found in North Africa. But if it is European, then if might also be a castle which has a fortified entrance accessible by water, such as in Chester, which are also called water towers. I could discount both of those suppositions though as the form appears to be square and both the castle and cisterna varieties are usually round. It could be something as prosaic as a railway water tower, which would have been something remarkable to a Victorian as we might admire a spaceport today.

If anyone can furnish any more details I hope they will get in touch and we can settle the doctor's questions about the context of this interesting work.

Endeavour House: where a water tower is a symbol for Suffolk

2011-01-18T17:52:00.001Z

If you have ever been to the lobby of Endeavour House, the headquarters of Suffolk County Council in Ipswich, you may have hardly noticed that several large icons of the Suffolk landscape are painted in outline on the walls of the lobby. There is a house, a pylon, a bridge and, behind the reception desk, there is one of a water tower.

Apparently this is a work that was commissioned from an artist when the council first moved into the building (which was originally built to house TXU Energy).

A key to the icons is painted on the reception desk which explains that number 8, the water tower, is the one at Barking Tye, near Ipswich. However the name of the artist is not recorded and no one seems to know any more who it was. Sir or Madam, we understand and appreciate your vision, whomever you are.

If anyone has a photo of the lobby, please get in touch. They were a bit touchy about me whipping out the camera to record it.

Barking Tye photo by By AndrewH.uk from Flickr (some rights reserved)

e-book on Dorset water towers

2011-01-17T21:26:00.001Z

Photographer Rich Meston has contacted BWTAS to tell us about his free e-Book 'Tower' a photographic study of what else, a local water tower. He writes:

This is a collection of sunrise shots from my office window, all of which feature the Water Tower at Tower Park in Poole, Dorset (in one way or another). There’s technical details for each of the shots, and a few hints and tips throughout. Let me know what you think.
Rich would like to enlist BWTAS brains trust for any information on one tower at Calluna Road, Poole.

Rich says: it's an interesting and very dominant structure on the horizon, and I lived in the area when it was built in the late 1980's. I had a bit of a search around, but couldn't find any information out and wondered if you knew of any other places to look. I'm primarily interested in the obvious details - when it was built, how tall, what capacity, what it's used for etc.

You can contact Rich Meston at rich@reikan.co.uk

Historic Culford water tower for sale

2011-01-15T10:24:00.003Z

Estate agents Bedfords have the Culford water tower near West Stow in Suffolk for sale expecting offers around £250,000. Their description says:

The water tower is a substantial red-brick water tower, believed to date from the late 19th century, with a former pump house and store. It has been granted planning permission for conversion to a residential dwelling and offers a rare opportunity for someone to acquire their own grand design project.

With its link to Culford School, its setting, views and historical connections, including the tank having been founded by the same company that produced the Sphinxes at Cleopatra's Needle in London, H. Young & Co, engineers of Pimlico, we expect a lot of interest to be shown in this exciting project. The accommodation, when complete, will comprise ground-floor entrance hall, large kitchen/breakfast room, two bedrooms and a bathroom; first-floor lounge and master bedroom with en suite; and second-floor sitting room.

The tower once served the Hall at Culford (now Culford School). Permission was granted in July 2008 to the owners, the Methodist Education Trust, to convert the tower to a dwelling.

Henry Young & Co. was founded in 1871 and traded from Eccleston Iron Works, Pimlico, London 1873-1902 and then Hayle Foundry Wharf, Nine Elms 1877-1902. It cast everything from bridge girders to statues and was frequently commissioned by the leading artists of the day. Besides the sphinxes for Cleopatra's needle, it cast the lamp standards along the Chelsea Embankment. The firm remains in business and has moved to Norfolk where it now specialises in complex structural work. Website H.Young Structures

More details and photos on Geograph

Endemol TV appeal for derelict historic homes

2011-01-14T12:00:00.000Z

Endemol, the makers of the original BBC series ‘Restoration’ are in production for a new BBC Two series ‘Restoration Home’ and have asked BWTAS for help in locating perhaps a water tower to feature in this new series. They told BWTAS:

‘Restoration’ concentrated on some of our most wonderful, publicly-owned, built heritage, which was at risk of being lost to us forever unless something was done. Now the BBC has asked us to once again explore our nation’s wonderful built heritage, in the new series ‘Restoration Home’, which will feature historically and architecturally important buildings being lovingly restored by their private owners.

Each show will chart the restoration process by the owners of one house, as they restore their home to its former glory. Much as the original series, we’ll bring the property to life, setting it in its cultural and historic context. This is a major aspect of each show and will be interwoven with the restoration. At the same time, we’ll be looking at the different stages of its architectural styles. The house may have different additions over time, and each one of these will reveal important social and historical developments. The restoration process will bring to light the difficult decisions about what ought to be saved and what can be sacrificed to make way for a 21^st century home.

Following is the press release:

REMARKABLE TELEVISION ARE PRODUCING A NEW SERIES FOR BBC2

ARE YOU SAVING OUR BUILT HERITAGE?

All over the country, there are spectacular historic properties that are at risk of being lost forever. These buildings are part of our identity; they are the portals of our history, the keepers of our past. Without our protection we’ll not only be losing bricks and mortar, but their histories as well.

We would like to find owners of derelict, historic homes for a new BBC television series, and follow them as they save these architectural gems from ruin and restore them into wonderful 21^st century homes, whilst turning detective to unravel the properties’ extraordinary lives.

What secrets do these houses hold? What events happened? Who lived there over generations? How was the property used?

The restoration process will bring to light the difficult decisions about what ought to be saved and what can be sacrificed to make way for a 21^st century home. How tough is it to balance sympathy for the past with the needs of modern day living?

At the end of it all, we’ll see an important historical property saved from dereliction and brought back to life to become a wonderful home once more.

If you are renovating a property, are interested in being part of the series and want to discover more about its structural and social history, please call 03335 777 740 or e-mail homes@endemoluk.com with your name and a few details of your property. (Calls from landlines are charged at your service providers national or local rate and mobile costs may vary)

Settle Station Water Tower (1876)

2010-12-23T19:24:00.007Z

BWTAS members Mark & Pat Rand, have undertaken an exciting project with their recent purchase of the Water Tower at Settle Station, that they intend to restore and convert into a home for themselves. The grade II listed building was built by the Midland Railway in 1876, and is the only surviving water tower on the Settle-Carlisle line, that once had eight water towers. Interestingly, the tower has once before been a home, but for horses: In May 1939, with war threatening, they built four stables inside the tower - we know this because the masons and joiners obligingly left a note - found in a rusty tobacco tin, concealed in a wall behind a newly inserted beam, recording the names of the men who built them. What is exciting about this project is, that as well as converting the tower into a dwelling, Mark and Pat intend to restore it to ‘as built’ by the Midland Railway, with the original colours on each tank panel of (from the middle outwards) Denby Pottery cream, Venetian red and Brunswick green. To assist them, they have a microfiche of the original plans (courtesy of Network Rail) signed by Samuel Waite Johnson in 1874, who was the Midland Railway's locomotive superintendent when the line was opened and approved the tower plans - water towers were the responsibility of the locomotive department. The tower has survived largely intact and is in good condition, however Mark is keen to get in touch with anybody who has experience with this type of tower. A problem which he is currently concerned about, is insulation of the tank base. Presently the tower’s ‘roof’ is made of 1” thick cast iron - just about as prefect a thermal radiator as you could imagine. They plan to insulate it on the outside (i.e. on the floor of the tank) and are wary of condensation below the tank, should they get it wrong. If you can offer any advice regarding this project, please contact Mark at follyatsettle@gmail.com.

Mark has set up a web site: settlestationwatertower.blogspot.com to record the restoration and conversion of this water tower.

The tower is located at SD 818 635 and had a capacity of 43,000 gallons. Click on the photographs above and below for a larger image.

Look down on your landlord...

2010-11-10T08:23:00.000Z

From the Scotsman

Victorian water tower for rent - owners will live in the garden

Published Date:
09 November 2010

By DAVID McCANN

IT'S one of the more unusual tenancies on the Edinburgh property market and has earned real estate plaudits from Britain to America.

Now a B-listed Victorian water tower in Dalkeith - thought to be the oldest of its kind in Scotland - is to become one of the most sought-after rental homes in the Lothians.

Standing 110ft tall, the landmark two-bedroom conversion boasts panoramic
views of the city, Forth Valley, the Pentlands and Lammermuir hills.

It has scooped a clutch of coveted accolades since renovations were completed in 1990, among them the Sunday Times "Best conversion of an industrial building" and heritage award for "Best architectural conversion", as well as the National Trust's "Best conversion" award. It has also earned notable air time in Britain and America on TV shows such as 80 Best Extreme Homes of the World and Lloyd Grossman's Through The Keyhole.

In the 1950s, 70 years after it was built, (in 1879) the tower was deemed unable to meet the demands of water supply and closed. The passion project of architect and restaurateur Gerry Goldmyre, the property is divided over eight floors connected by a wrought iron spiral staircase, with the top floors opening out into a spacious studio with pitched ceiling.

The property can be leased for £1000 per month, and the only possible drawback is that the landlords, who say they would be choosy about who will take over their dream home, have set up home in the shadow of the landmark.

"It's far more important to get the right person - someone who appreciates what it is," said Mr Goldmyre, twice winner of BBC's Masterchef competition.

"A suitable tenant would be someone who enjoys peace, quiet, and excellent neighbours. No-one else lives within earshot apart from my wife and I. It would also be suited to someone who works from home as the spaces are conducive to architects or computer consultants among other professions - someone who cherishes living in a quirky piece of history and a grade B listed building."

Asked if it was a wrench to leave a property he had poured his heart and soul into, he replied: "It's massive. If we weren't moving to accommodation in our garden it would have been impossible."

Mr Goldmyre and his wife Susan lived in the water tower for two decades but in May moved into a £200,000 eco-conscious "safari lodge" in the garden of the structure.

Scotland's register of historic places has it listed as Esbank Road Water Tower, Grid Ref NT 32735 66996 a polychrome brick octagonal tower built 1879 for the Dalkeith Town Council by James Leslie, engineer of the Edinburgh Water Company.

Old Postcards

2010-10-20T23:20:00.004+01:00

The international collectible trading site delcampe.net often has many postcards of water towers for sale. Here is a selection found recently of British water towers.

The Barbourne Water Tower was built as part of the water works in 1770. Water was taken from the Severn and pumped through the tower and along wooden pipes into a central city supply near the Trinity. It became redundant when a new waterworks was built in the 1800's. It was converted into dwellings for a time but was unfortunately demolished in the 1960's. Today the foundations are still visible at the rear of Gheluvelt Park.

Information from Worcester City Museum

Information from London Borough of Croydon

Addington Reservoir on the southern side of the Hills was built in 1888 and the Valve House was initially open to the public with refreshments being served from the ground floor and a residence above. Unfortunately an outbreak of Typhoid in 1937 was traced to the reservoir and the cafe was quickly closed and the area fenced off.

A video of the pumping engines on Youtube.

Croydon was a market town twelve miles South of London (now a London Borough of some 300,000 folk) that expanded rapidly in the 1880s as a London dormitory. The old town from where Croydon's water supply was drawn was so unsanitary that typhoid outbreaks were common when the water level dropped so in January 1885 Croydon Corporation started to build a new well outside the town at Addington on the back slope of the North Downs. Here a well 200 feet deep gathered water from an area of 11 square miles and the pumping station pumped the water to a reservoir in Addington Hills. Two beam engines were installed along with five Cornish boilers to provide steam at 100 psi. The pumps operated with any major fault until 1974 when the station was demolished and replaced by electric submersible pumps.

According to the contractors, the demolition of the iconic York University Water Tower was a lot more complicated than first envisaged.

An Edwardian-era photo of the Lendal Tower which is featured elsewhere on BWTAS

Littlestone-on-Sea water tower was built in 1890 by Henry T. Tubbs to supply his properties in Littlestone, including the Golf Club and his proposed housing development. Tubbs wanted to turn Littlestone into a major resort, and embarked on an ambitious building programme, including the Marine Parade and Grand Hotel. His plans for a pier were not realised, however, and it was eventually built at Eastbourne instead.

Unfortunately the water supply from the tower was unsuitable, because it contained too much sea water. In 1902 the Littlestone and District Water Company built a tower at Dungeness to supply all of New Romney, Littlestone, Greatstone and Lydd. The tower at Littlestone fell into disuse, but now serves as a residence.

Info from New Romney Tour

West Bar picnic

2010-10-09T14:00:00.002+01:00

We are organising a social get-together for BWTAS members on Saturday October 9^th at Thorpeness, on the Suffolk Coast: a picnic (or, if the weather is bad, lunch in the café or pub), followed by a guided tour of West Bar water tower by kind permission of John Smith. Thorpeness is well-endowed with towers: the famous ‘House-in-the-Clouds’, a nearby windmill which once pumped water to it, and the magnificent brick-built West Bar supported on an arch over the road. All are within a few minutes walk. Meet at 12:00 the café by the lake (postcode IP16 4NW, or click here for google map) - you can’t miss it, Thorpeness is a small village. There is a car park just South of here, on the East side of the road. Following the social we shall have a tour at 2pm. Note, this is John’s home and therefore the group size will need to be limited to 10 or so.

Alcatraz Island (1941)

2010-08-18T10:48:00.006+01:00

BWTAS member, David Blackburn, has sent in these photographs of the water tower on the Alcatraz Island, taken from a tourist boat by a friend (click on images to reveal full size). The island has had many uses during its history, but it was during the period when it was being used as a federal prison, that the water tower was built in 1940/41. The tower consists of steel tank of 208,710 gallons (250,650 U.S. gallons) supported by six columns secured to concrete footings. The structure is 93 feet tall and is the only elevated fresh water storage facility on the island. The location is 37 degrees, 49 minutes, 34.18 seconds North, 122 degrees, 25 minutes and 19.56 seconds West.

Water Tower Development Diss-regarded

2010-07-15T17:13:00.000+01:00

The Diss Mercury reports the Diss water tower plans reported here have been withdrawn.

Applicant AWG Land Holdings had submitted its second application to change the landmark 192 tower in Louie's Lane into two maisonettes.

But the plans, which would have also seen the construction five homes on the site, were withdrawn before a South Norfolk Council planning meeting last week.

The scheme had been recommended for refusal by officers because of the cramped design, lack of parking spaces, and impact on neighbours of the “overbearing” development.

Water tower that makes its own rain!

2010-06-23T08:43:00.000+01:00

From http://webecoist.com/2010/06/02/make-it-rain-precipitation-producing-water-tower/

Water towers are necessary parts of the landscape, but they aren’t often thought of as positive features of the towns they’re in. This water tower design was created by French firm Atelier Ramdam Architects for Latina, Italy; it is as much a public space as it is a water storage facility. Meant to act as a center for ecological and water management issues, the dream-like “Castle in the Sky” would both blend with the environment and enhance its surroundings.

The Castle in the Sky design consists of a ground-level park and pond, a mirror-clad shaft, and a large platform atop the shaft. Coating the central tower in reflective material makes it almost disappear, enabling the structure to be a part of the landscape without dominating it.

One of the most striking features of the Castle in the Sky is the fact that it makes its own rain. The tower uses the pond at the bottom of the structure as its reservoir. Water is pulled up through the tower, then vaporized on the rooftop platform, which doubles as a recreational space. The precipitation falls on the rooftop park as well as the ground-level park, cooling and hydrating the vegetation and visitors in the immediate area.

Vegetation at the ground level helps to filter the water after it rains down and before it runs back into the reservoir. The entire structure can be used for educational purposes or simply as a unique and beautiful gathering space for the entire town.

The power of pencil and paint...

2010-06-16T08:37:00.000+01:00

This is not exactly a water tower subject but posted as an example of something BWTAS understands: the power structures have in our physical and emotional landscapes and the influence artists have on our experience of this.

From the EDP 21/5/10

New weapons have been unveiled in the fight to restore and save Great Yarmouth's dilapidated Vauxhall Bridge - a sketch pad and artist's palette.

Yarmouth-based industrial landscape artist Katarzyna Coleman has been called in to sketch and then paint the 19th century bridge to help raise the profile of a campaign to breathe fresh into the gateway of the town.

Ms Coleman is sketching the bridge from the comfort of the neighbouring Seafood Restaurant, which is owned by bridge campaigner Miriam Kikis.

Mrs Kikis is hoping that grants can be found to restore the Fairbarn box girder bridge, but fears that the possibility of it being knocked down remains an outside option.

Once Ms Coleman has produced her set of Vauxhall bridge paintings in several months' time, Ms Kikis hopes she can use prints of them to use as cards to hand out to customers to promote her campaign.

It is also hoped that Ms Coleman's creation will end up in Yarmouth Library - prompting visitors to wonder what will happen if the bride is lost forever.

Ms Coleman said: “The bridge is a beautiful structure, although at the moment it is not pretty to look at. It is part of Yarmouth's unique industrial landscape and I am glad I can help Miriam.”

A major feasibility study is to be launched in to the bridge's future by Norfolk County Council, which hopes to seek outside funding from agencies such as the lottery grants. Urban regeneration company 1st East is supporting the study.

Image of Vauxhall Bridge by Pete Sturman found on Flickr.

Scan of original cutting

BWTAS event: Carshalton Water Tower Visit

2010-05-25T22:46:00.003+01:00

Images have been removed from this posting

BWTAS members are planning to meet at Carshalton Water Tower on Saturday 26th June, 12.00 midday. The entry fee has been discounted to £1.

CarshaltonWater Tower is a unique Grade II listed early 18th century garden building sited in the grounds of Carshalton House in Surrey. In addition to the Water Tower, there is the surrounding garden including the Hermitage and Folly Bridge.

Info and map at www.carshaltonwatertower.co.uk

The Carshalton water tower is one of the finest estate towers in existence and thankfully one of the most accessible. The water tower constructed 1719 is unique in that it contains a suite of rooms that serve a range of domestic functions. There is a deep plunge bath with exquisite tiling, a formal saloon and a beautifully proportioned orangery. The remains of a water wheel can be seen in the pump chamber that lifted water into the cistern crowning the tower. It could be considered the equal of Houghton Hall, a 1732 example in Norfolk that supplied the home of Sir Robert Walpole.

The Carshalton Water Tower, Hermitage and Historic Gardens in Surrey are managed by a voluntary charitable trust. The tower and gardens are often hired for a wide range of purposes including filming.

Friends of Carshalton Water Tower have been granted associate membership of BWTAS.

For information about the friends, contact the secretary

Julia Gertz
136 West Street,
Carshalton
Surrey SM5 2NR Telephone: 0208 647 0984

A new Water Tower for Melton Mowbray

2010-04-01T02:51:00.003+01:00

Following the successful campaign to get Melton Mowbray pies "Protected Geographical Indication" (PGI) status, the town is now to follow the Americans with a themed water tower. Inspired by the Peachoid water tower at Gaffney, they wanted a pork pie water tower! The design is quite traditional up to the tank: the supporting legs will be constructed off site - and then erected, while the service shaft will be cast in sections and then craned into position. Shuttering will then be placed upon the shaft and legs, before the hot-water concrete is poured - believed to be the first time this new waterproof hot-water concrete has been used for a water tower. Innovation does not stop there: Due to increasingly cold winters, the ever present risk of the water freezing has been reduced by floating a "Jelly" like blanket on the surface of the water. Not only does this provide an insulating layer, retaining heat, it also provides a sterile barrier between the treated water and air. The consulting engineers, Ebenezer Associates, have provided an artist’s impression:

Tower of Bubble

2010-02-07T10:13:00.000Z

Water towers are pretty simple right? A tank supplied by gravity or a pump, so what possibly could go wrong? Cornishman Denzil Bark relates...

Cornishman in Africa : Tower of Bubble.

Merchandise!

2010-02-02T23:34:00.002Z

1/12/11 We're very sorry but all the BWTAS merchandise has now sold out. If we get 20 people to reserve the next edition, we can put another batch in production.

This is the official and extremely limited edition BWTAS mug.

Concrete conversion in Cambridgeshire

2010-02-02T08:38:00.001Z

Seen in the Cambs Times*

Historic Disused Water Tower In Fenland Village Could Be Converted To Luxury 3 Bed Home

13:39 - 01 February 2010

Disused water tower at Welney

By John Elworthy

AN historic Fenland landmark - a disused concrete and steel water tower in the centre of Welney- could become a luxury three bedroom house.

The tower, built in the 1930s, has been bought by a businessman from Girton who paid £11,750 for it at an auction last year- more than double the expected sale price.

Stephen Drury, of GSM Ltd, has applied to West Norfolk Council for permission to convert the tower which he says has "clearly become an eyesore due to its dilapidated condition".

Artist's impression of the proposed elevations of water tower at Welney

But he says the tower, decommissioned in the mid 1990s, "is an historical piece of concrete work with significance" and he says water towers do not seem to attract the same hostility as radio masts, pylons and wind turbines.

Mr Drury says the overall design rationale "is one of honest conversion and correct choice of materials. Internal planning accepts the segmental nature of the space and uses its convenient module to produce internal spaces that work well".

The external framework will remain unaltered which ensures "the conversion doesn't simply mask the building and allows others to identify with its past use."

The existing concrete legs of the tower will remain visible and the emphasis will be to produce a design that has "a light and open feel to the area below the tank".

Mr Drury says the upper level will retain the concrete hand railing system as an historical note, and the level will be capped with a weathered zinc roof and cedar cladding to the walls.

"Positive feedback has been received from English Heritage on the proposal," he says.

On the ground floor will be a cloak room; n open plan kitchen and dining room on the first floor with a first floor mezzanine lounge; a second floor of shower room, bedroom, and the main bedroom at tank level. On the upper level will be a family room and terrace.

BWTAS comment:

No doubt this proposal conversion has taken a leaf from the home of Jan Moreels and his much admired conversion of a concrete tower outside Antwerp.

*note: we have pasted the content of the Cambs Times here in its entirety because of the increasing frequency that links become broken when newspapers do not keep their stories online for more than a few months. If you are the copyright holder and you object to this "fair use" please contact BWTAS and it will be removed. Nat Bocking, Gen. Sec. BWTAS.

No business like snow business...

2010-01-13T08:39:00.002Z

The freeze that has gripped Britain has dominated the media for the last four weeks and so can't be ignored by BWTAS. Our chairman Wil Harvey kindly sent in this winter scene from Southwold.

The practical problems of freezing are a concern to water tower engineers. Usually, such a large mass of water doesn't freeze entirely and the outlets are under the surface of any ice formed but on older towers with pumping engines underneath them, the designers would vent the smokestack or provide bleed pipes through the tank to utilise waste heat to prevent freezing, the Round House in Perth being an example. The main problem is the freezing of the pipework and this is why most towers that are supported on legged structures will have a central column enclosing the pipes and the stairway, as evident above.