Bowling Green Mills, Bingley, West Yorkshire (1871)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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:

1. Court Lodge Water Tower. Wrotham, Kent. 
2. The Round House, Perth, Tayside, 1832 
3. Everton Water Tower, Liverpool, Merseyside, 1854 
4. Internally Flanged cast iron tank, Wivenhoe water tower, Essex, 1901 
5. Flaybrick water tower, Birkenhead, Merseyside, 1865 
6. Friday Bridge water tower, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, 1894 
7. Westgate water tower, Lincoln, 1910 
8. Lymm water tower, Cheshire.
9. Horncastle Road Water Tower, Boston, Lincolnshire, 1905 
10. Hartlepool water towers, Cleveland 
11. Balkerne Tower, Colchester, Essex, 1882 
12. Winshill water tower, Burton on Trent, Staffs, 1907 
13. 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