Dunkeswell, Devon (1989)

© Photograph Copyright Brian Light

The above photograph was sent to me by fellow BWTAS committee member, Brian Light, while on holiday. Brian thought this was a rather unusual water tower, looking more like a grain silo, however the sinage clearly indicated that it was a water tower. This water tower is indeed unusual, as like many, it has two tanks, but unusually in this instance, they are located one above the other, in a 'double decker' arrangement. Normally a tower will contain two tanks at the same level, that usually work in tandem. This enables one to be drained down for cleaning, while still maintaining supply from the other, during less demanding periods. This 120,000 gallon tower, built in 1989 stands at O.S. Grid Ref. ST 13440 05850.

Two other towers in Britain were also known to share this oddity, of having 'double decker' tanks:— The 510,000 gallon Priesthill tower in Glasgow, built in 1950, it had a 450,000 gallon tank, 22 feet above ground level and a second 60,000 gallon tank supported on a 3 × 4 array of columns on top of the lower tank, giving it an elevation of 52 feet above ground. The tower was demolished in the late 1990s — it stood at O.S. Grid Ref. NS 52962 60313. The other tower, was Ormskirk's Victoria Tower, built in 1897, by the Rural District of Lathom and Burscough. The square plan tower built of sandstone supports a lower tank of 80,000 gallons, approximately 62 feet high with, a top water level of 242 feet above ordnance datum. This is surmounted by a smaller tank on a square sandstone tower of 17,000 gallons, approximately 99 feet high with a top water level of 283 feet above ordnance datum. The tower became redundant when the new tower at Scarth Hill was built. Due to the rapid deterioration of the structure, the tower was demolished in the early 1980s — it stood at O.S. Grid Ref. SD 42379 08612.

The practice of having multiple tanks stacked vertically, is much more common in other European countries — such as the Sternschanzen tower in Hamburg, Germany, featured previously in this blog.

Ferrers

Manton, Rushden, Northamptonshire (1961)

Britain's second water tower to utilise prestressed reinforced concrete! Pre-stressed concrete was first used in this country for water tower construction back in 1953, for the small Meare tower in Somerset, which we featured here in February, 2009. Like the earlier tower, the Manton tower completed some eight years later, again only uses pre-stressed concrete for the tank, that has a capacity of 300,000 gallons. It's supporting cylindrical service shaft is of regular reinforced concrete. The tower was built for the Higham Ferrers & Rushden Water Board and can be seen under construction in the image on the right, reproduced with the kind permission of The Concrete Society.

The tower is located at SP 94130 66637 and the above image was the only full tower shot I could get, unlike this rather beter photograph, where the photographer looks to have had access to a neighbouring property.

Ferrers

Suffolk Water Tower under construction in 1953

© Copyright Michael Smith and Linda Woodward, reproduced by kind permission of SARA Strabroke Village Archive

The above image was taken by the prolific photographer Geoffrey Smith in 1953. Much of his work has been made available by the Stradbroke Archive & Record Association on their web site. Unfortunately we don't know which water tower it is being built — it was labelled “Fressingfield Water Tower 1953”.

The smaller 100,000 gallon water tower at Fressingfield, was built in 1955 and is a slender tower with central a service shaft and 12 legs… There are three water towers in Suffolk, of the design shown under construction, all built about 1953: Dennington TM 27161 66726, Framlingham TM 29938 63491 and Blythburgh TM 45367 74244. If you can identify this tower, please leave a comment below.

Ferrers

Tower at Fressingfield

Yew Tree Hill, Droitwich, Worcestershire (1962)

© Copyright Philip Halling and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

This post is in response to a query left on the About BWTAS posting, back in May 2011. Back then, all I knew about this tower was that it was a square reinforced concrete tower and it's location: SO 90306 61602. We now know that this 150,000 gallon water tower was constructed in 1962, at a cost of £35,000, for the East Worcestershire Waterworks Co. The tower is 110 feet high and comprises a square tank supported by 12 slender square sectioned columns, of 81 feet, around the perimeter and a square service shaft that passes up through the tank, forming a penthouse to give access to the top of the tank. Construction was by Messrs. Currall, Lewis & Martin Ltd., but we don't know who designed this stunning water tower. If you have any further details, please leave a comment.

The photograph of the construction of this tower is published with the kind permission of The Concrete Society.

Ferrers

Raydon gets a new Roof !

The water tower at Raydon, Suffolk, recently received a new 2.7 tonne, aluminium roof, as part of an £800,000 refurbishment. The refreshing aspect of this refurbishment, is that on completion, it will return to use as elevated storage for potable water!

The 1954 reinforced concrete water tower, built by the then Samford District Council, had a steel roof that was no longer watertight. It is vital that the treated water stored inside the tower is protected from any possible contamination. It was decided that the best way to ensure this, was to replace the roof entirely and refurbish the whole tower at the same time. The 300,000 gallon steel tank within the concrete structure, also required its inside coating stripping off by shot-blasting and re-coating, prior to the new roof being fitted last Thursday.

The 50 foot diameter roof arrived as a kit – like a giant flat pack. Anglian Water’s contractors, @one Alliance, put it together in the carpark of the nearby golf course before hoisting it into position with a crane.

The tower, which serves 17,000 people in and around Raydon and Alton, has been out of use for about a year since it was found the old roof was deteriorating. The tower at O.S. Grid Ref. TM 04745 38111 provides storage to balance flows from the treatment works and security in the event of a failure as well as maintaining constant pressure.

Images and information kindly supplied by Anglian Water.

Ferrers