Uxbridge Common, Greater London (1907)

© Photograph Copyright Edmund Silvester

BWTAS member, Jennifer Silvester, kindly sent in this photograph of the now converted water tower located at TQ 06019 85191. The Uxbridge tower was completed in 1907 for the Uxbridge Water Works company, holding 80,000 gallons of water. Looking at old maps, we see that by 1934 a large reservoir has been built beside the tower, by Uxbridge Urban District Council. I do not know when the tower went out of use, but it was sold in 1980, for conversion to a dwelling. The tower is not a listed building.

If you can add any information, please leave a comment.

Ferrers

Cawston, Norfolk (1897)

A chance for members to visit…

The water tower was designed in 1897 by Sir Ernest George based on Dutch architecture of the time, it is the only ten sided water tower in Europe and is built of Cawston red brick, made at the Marshall Howard Brick Kiln. The owner of Cawston Manor, an American stockbroker coincidently called George Cawston, had it built to get fresh water to the Manor.

David Forster attended Cawston College as a boy and first became acquainted with the water tower then when his teacher, George Mumford, took him up the tower via the 85 ft. ladder which remains in situ on the wall of the tower, running through every room.

He became aware that the tower was up for sale through his friendship with Nick Youngs, and was determined to buy it, and so with his inheritance purchased it from Nick’s father, Gerald in 2002.

David has done much of the work on the tower himself, to turn the tower into a home for his wife and two boys. The renovation was actually filmed by Channel 5 for their programme “Build a New Life in the Country”. David has now built an extension onto the tower, to house a workshop and living quarters for when he and his wife become unable to climb the many stairs up to each room of the tower.
Reproduced by kind permission of www.cawstonheritage.co.uk

The Cawston Remembers project have created this video of David and his water tower:

David and Jenny have kindly invited members of the British Water Tower Appreciation Society to visit their tower — all members should have received an e-mail from us with details… If you have not, please e-mail us at bwtas@hotmail.co.uk (regardless of whether you intend to come on this visit) so we can update our list and keep you informed of forthcoming activities. Places on this visit are limited, so you need book before you attend.

Ferrers

Tank Battle!!! – The restoration of the Walton Head water tower

The disputed tank at Pannal…       © Carol and Maj Nadry

The subject of "Restoration Man", Channel 4, 8pm Wednesday, 28^th January

The story of the turbulent battle to restore the Walton Head water tower, previously featured here on this site, comes to the TV. From the Channel 4 web site: "Yorkshire couple Carol and Majid embark on an ambitious adventure, transforming a brick water tower into a five-storey home. But unexpected costs and legal problems hit the project."

Carol and Maj have transformed a rather ugly 1940's brick water tower, into a good looking dwelling, despite the challenges thrown at them during the course of the project.

Ferrers

Walton Head, Pannal, North Yorkshire (late 1940’s)

© Photograph Copyright Carol and Maj Nadry

This must be one of the last brick, public water supply towers built, as reinforced concrete was being extensively used for water towers at this time. The water tower was built by Harrogate Corporation Waterworks Department to serve the village of Kirkby Overblow. We don't have an exact build date, but know that Harrogate council purchased the land for the water tower in 1946. Some of the internal pipework has “STAVELEY 1949” in relief, and anecdotal evidence suggests the build date as being late 1940's. The brick tower supports a sectional cast iron tank of 37,500 gallons. The tower went out of service and fell into the shabby state above… Eventually Yorkshire Water, who became the owners of the tower, obtained planning permission for conversion to a dwelling, in 2010 and put the tower up for sale. The tower has been purchased by BWTAS members Carol and Maj Nadry who have restored and sympathetically transformed this tower into a good looking dwelling, retaining an industrial look.

© Photograph Copyright Carol and Maj Nadry

We are most grateful to be supplied with these photographs, as the tower is completely surrounded by trees. It is located at O.S. Grid Ref. SE 31393 50880. The tower's conversion should feature on Channel 4's "Restoration Man" at some time in the future.

Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there… The planning permission that Yorkshire Water obtained, showed the tank removed in the plans, although this was not a specific condition (they had assumed the tank was not saveable). By installing 20 tons of steel reinforcements and spending a lot of money, the tank was saved! They now find that they have to retrospectively apply for planning permission to retain the tank. Unfortunately their neighbours, 120 yards away on the other side of the trees, want the tank removed. Comments on this planning application can be made by the public here.

BWTAS acknowledges Nicholas De Taranto from Tiger Aspect, for some of the information in this post.

Ferrers

Update 17/10/2014: I am pleased to report that unconditional approval to retain the tank, has been granted.

Ten Famous Belgians

There's a British pub-quiz perennial: name ten famous Belgians. Of course you lose a point if you name the fictional Hercule Poirot. What isn't fictional is that the tiny plucky country dispensed with government for over year and nobody revolted so evidently it is a very civilised place. It also has a wealth of water tower culture, something BWTAS posits is not unrelated.

Charleroi, Belgium 11/25/1990
Id: BW-6090-7-25.11.1990

Gallery of more Belgian industrial water towers

Near Antwerp is a stunning converted water tower house designed by architect Jo Crepain of Crepain Binst Architecture. The Moereels House is located in Brasschaat.

Chateau d’eau is a remarkable home made from a reclaimed water tower in the small town of Steenokkerzeel. 

Read more: Water Tower Transformed Into Minimalist Modern Home.

The water tower below is in Tienen in the Flemish part of Belgium and is by Architect Ortwin Deroo. It's 46 meters high with a viewing platform.

There are many more on this excellent gallery of Belgian Water Towers.

However, Mrs Benjamin of Suffolk sent BWTAS this week an image taken on her Eurostar city break to Bruge. It's located at 51.080935,3.114796

Mrs Benjamin wrote: Deze is voor je – de watertoren van Tourhout.  De waterbedriif is Vlaamse Maatschappij voor Watervoorziening.

(This is for you, the water tower of Tourhout. The water company is VMW)

Interestingly, this tower doesn't appear in the previous galleries so it seems there must be plenty of water towers in Belgium left to document. Happy hunting!

With a lack of information about Tourhout water towers, the only notable thing we found about Tourhout is that it produced Sylvie De Caluwe. OK, we were kind of distracted from searching much further but we hope she will one day earn a place on a list of very famous Belgians.

Sylvie De Caluwé

Score a point if you said:

Audrey Hepburn
Eddy Merckx
Adolphe Sax
Herge (George Remi)
Plastic Bertrand
Peter Paul Rubens
Rene Magritte
Leo Baekeland
Liz Claiborne

That's only nine? Oh, poor Belgium but we British think your water towers are more than enough compensation.

Everyone comes to Ric's

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.

East Dereham Victorian Tower

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

All the best towns have a museum in their water tower

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.

Whose Horton's hearings?

The fate of an abandoned circa 1912-24 water tower at the former Horton Asylum in Epsom remains in doubt after a meeting of the local council's planning committee on 6th December 2009. The committee voted to recommend rejection of the London and Quadrant Housing Trust's proposal to redevelop the tower as the lift shaft for a new-build thirteen story block of flats.

download the plans

The housing trust's proposal also provided four two-bedroom apartments next to the existing tower, which would be repaired and refurbished.

According to the application: The water tower is constructed of yellow gault brick. It measures a maximum of 7.3m by 9.9m in plan and is 39m high.

The proposal is to insert floors into the main and largest shaft in the building and in a former flue shaft, to add a stair/lift core to one side of the tower and erect a four storey extension in order to provide four two-bed maisonettes.

The two lowest maisonettes would have two storeys each on the lower four floors and the two above would occupy four storeys each of the remaining eight storeys.

The existing spiral stair, which is to be blocked off between dwellings, would provide the internal link between the various floors of a dwelling. The new staircase is to be the fire escape and also leads to the dwelling entrances. The lift would be a ‘fire fighting’ type.

The applicants state the proposed lift and staircase is required because of the need for access and escape in the case of a fire.

The four storey extension at the base of the tower is shown with a flat roof a maximum of 11.8m high.

Externally, the existing tower windows are adjusted and enlarged and additional windows are provided to each new residential floor. The rotten pitched roof it removed to form a roof terrace and a small flat roofed conservatory directly accessed from the existing spiral staircase. The existing brick work will be cleared and the tower will receive a rendered plinth for two storeys to disguise previous workshop abatements.

The new lift and stair shaft would have a steel structure clad in a self coloured rendered finish.

Six parking spaces would be provided with vehicular access from a road in the adjoining open market housing under construction.

Top image lifted from Jason Rogers Flickr page.



The reasons given for refusal are the effect on adjacent dwellings and the effect on the appearance of the existing tower. Horton water tower is not listed but it is supposed to be retained because of its character and townscape importance.

The actual decision to refuse or to permit will be taken in public by the councillors on the Planning Committee later.

But the councils actions have angered local residents who are urging the council either to demolish or preserve the water tower, if the application is turned down by the Planning Committee.

According to the Epsom Guardian: Kate Battrick (a prominent stylist) who lives behind the tower, said: “They have to either demolish it or put on a proper preservation order and take responsibility for it. They can’t leave it like this. While we welcome the findings in the report, it does not address that Epsom Council has failed the residents in Livingstone Park, showing a lack of care and responsibility.”

More info on Horton Asylum can be found on websites detailing the history of the cluster of asylums in Epsom and Ewell: History of the Epsom Hospitals and history of County Asylums.

According to the Liberal Democrat held council website:

When Horton Chapel and Horton Water Tower were saved from demolition during the building of the Livingstone Park estate in Epsom, local residents were consulted about its future. That first meeting was held five years ago!

For a variety of reasons, there has been little progress since then and most recently regeneration of both buildings appears to have succumbed to the economic downturn.



Meanwhile the nearby Grade II listed St. Ebbas water tower (left) with its integral chimney is being converted to become a power station for a similar asylum redevelopment where its planning persmission requires 20% of the site's energy to be from renewable sources. In this instance that could be from a woodchip burner.

You can follow this all too familiar sounding planning saga from here: Public Meeting on Horton Chapel and Water Tower

BWTAS would be grateful for updates from anyone informed on the situation.

Tower Brewery, Burton

Tower Brewery 1875

Once the water tower for Walsitch Maltings, who supplied malt to the Tomas Salt Brewery, once the second largest brewery in Burton. Abandoned for a number of years, the tower’s broken window in the uppermost floor became a refuge for pigeons. Thus, owner John Mills’ first job was removing several feet of droppings by shoveling it into bags and lowering them down three stories by crane. Happily, the brewery is now pigeon-free, and only the aroma of beer fills the air. Mills brews five regular beers, four rotating seasonals and a number of one-off beers whenever the mood hits him. Try Tower Pale Ale, a golden amber with a small, tight white head. A fruity, tangy nose with baked bread notes introduces a swallow that’s initially malty but fruity, balanced by a citrusy hop character and a short, dry finish. Text from Draftmag

The conversion was awarded a Civic Society Historical Industrial Building restoration plaque which is on the wall outside.

Tower Brewery
The Old Water Tower
Walsitch Maltings
Glensyl Way
Burton Upon Trent
DE14 1LX
Phone 01283 530695
Fax 01283 530695
e-mail towerbrewery@aol.com

Plans for Aldeburgh Water Tower Conversion

Priors Hill Water Tower in Park Road, Aldeburgh was built in 1871 for the benefit of the town by the Garrett family, the Victorian philanthropists who owned the Leiston Works. Disused since the 1980's, Northumbrian Water sold the tower at auction in 2007 for £407,000.


At present brickwork is falling out from the oversailing courses under the tank and extensive preservation work is urgently required to the Grade II listed structure.


BWTAS has had sight of preliminary plans the present owner, a pharmacist, has commissioned for converting the tower into two flats for their children which requires removal of the existing tanks and its internal ironwork supports (the tower's façade does not carry the load of the tank).


Both flats will have ground floor quarters in a one story extension surrounding the base of the tower on all four sides in a minimalist, moderne glass cube. One flat will use the upper portion (from the mid-section up) creating a roof terrace with a new cupola and the lower portion will have double height rooms overlooking the base extension, likely using the extension's roof as a balcony. What may give concern to the architects and the planners is the opening of window apertures in the infills of many of the arch details, most of which will be facing south and west, and the addition of a small rooftop structure altering the shape of the tower when viewed from a distance.


There has been much wonder locally about access to the tower as it presently sits in the middle of a garden but it appears that at the time of construction, Aldeburgh Town Council gave a 15 foot wide easement over the hospital car park for maintenance access, presently unused, which will require some amendment to the car park to enable a new entrance. If that is done, there will only be space for two cars at the base of the water tower for the occupants.


Local residents and neighbours we have spoken to have concerns about the nuisance of what would be a major construction project and the lack of privacy from their sudden visibility to new neighbours and the likely detriment to their already battered property values. Although BWTAS does not take a position on such matters, it is evident from the plans that the architects have been sensitive to these issues and no doubt amendments will be made reflecting expert advice and representations, as is usual in the course of planning applications, which we must stress have not yet been submitted.


Addendum


Two planning applications have been made to Suffolk Coastal District Council for:


WATER TOWER, PARK ROAD, ALDEBURGH, IP15 5ET

C/10/3260


C/10/3261


You can search for details of the applications at: http://apps3.suffolkcoastal.gov.uk/dcdatav2/acolnetcgi.gov

Diss-appearing act

The EDP and the Diss Express report the water tower at Diss, Norfolk, is another one being converted into flats.

This tower is interesting to compare to a similar proposal at Dereham. The lack of detailing in this 1912 tower shows how by the Edwardian era, building costs had escalated and made construction to the Victorian standards of finish no longer feasible.

Location OSGB36: TM 114 804