Pork Pie News

It's a really perfect title for a blog. For those unfamiliar with English idioms, 'pork pies' is rhyming slang for 'lies' but I don't doubt its veracity though as it really concerns itself with pork pies. These are delicacy for which East Anglian pig farmers excel at providing the contents for.

The pie master himself is Ferrers Young who is a frequent face at BWTAS meetings and our official archivist and data manager, so obviously we can't be keeping him too busy. Each entry concerns itself with a walk with fellow pie munchers, often to a pub, a pie review carefully scored and weighted and the occasional water tower along the way. We knew he couldn't resist them. Visit it here.

The image is of the 1953 water tower at Hinton Lodge, otherwise known as Blythburgh just off the the A12 in Suffolk. The pigs belong to Blythburgh Free Range Pork. This tower has identical siblings built around the same time in Framlingham, Freston and Dennington.

Save Bath Road Reservoir

It was on the strength of photos of water towers on flickr.com that BWTAS came across this site.

Although BWTAS wasn't constituted to be a preservationist society, most of its members take the view that such decisions about water towers cannot be made without all the facts. We don't know if the water tower is threatened but it is fairly typical that it has become a symbol of the campaign.

There are any number of commercial possibilities for a disused water tower and many water towers have historic and architectural value, if only it could be properly researched. As the thousands of photos testify, water towers seem to inspire great numbers of photographers, sculptors, painters and even poets. Their inspirational effect on musicians is well documented.

Conduits of Lincoln

Regular correspondent David Blackburn asks if BWTAS activities extend to conduits. Well, some members do take an interest in them. Here are David's photos of

St Mary’s Conduit and the High Bridge Obelisk

Some of our people take an interest in dams, wells and aqueducts too. Water towers are just part of the water supply system.

The present politics of water (and so its history) are of course vital to just about every person on on earth.

Conduits have a rich history. Here's just one paper on them.

Leweston Water Tower

Image Mr RJ Whittick FRPS from Images of England.
Date Photographed: October 1999

Leweston Water Tower, Dorset

Much has been written of the symbolism of buildings in general and thus in popular memory of the 'twin towers' of the original Wembley Stadium.

Today "twin towers" has a whole host of meanings despite being dominated by the World Trade Center. Petronas, JRR Tolkien and Wembley are some others but it can be argued that their significance is all one.

Somewhere deep in our subconscious, from the time our forefathers erected standing stones, towers in pairs have stood for portals or boundaries for the passage of things; the light of the sun, prayers or sacrifical offerings, onto somewhere else. It can be argued that a single standing stone has one (often phallocentric) meaning whereas two is completely different, although not unrelated. Two towers together seems to make an impact greater than the sum of their parts.

Those that consider such semiotics may be interested to know that the original Wembley stadium's architect evidently had a thing for towers and there are at least two other similar examples still standing. For expediency, two sources have been cut and pasted below:

National Monument Record:

Concrete structure with conical copper roof. Octagonal on plan with angle pilasters. Vertical profile slightly convex. Doorway at ground level with polygonal arch. 3 tiers of narrow slit windows diminishing in height towards top of the tower. Top stage an open viewing platform. External timber winding stair. Interesting example of Art Deco design.

Concrete, Oct 2002 issue:

When Sir Eric Rose purchased Leweston Manor, near Sherbourne, in the late 1920s he decided to improve the water supply on the estate by constructing a water tower. He chose Maxwell Ayrton as his architect who, with Sir John Simpson, had been the architect for Wembley Stadium and the British Empire Exhibition of 1924. Sir Owen Williams was the structural engineer and Sir Robert McAlpine the contractor for this large project. A similar water tower to Leweston at Wappingthorn Farm, Steyning, Sussex was profiled in The Architects' Journal for 14 January 1931. Ayrton and Williams collaborated on this structure so, although Owen Williams' office now has no record of either structure, it seems reasonable to assume that the same team designed Leweston water tower.

The tower was built in Ferroconcrete, which was popular at the time, and is 16.Sm tall, with an additional Sm of timber for the belvedere. The inside face is a 5.7m-diameter circle; the outside is octagonal with walls i50mm thick at their narrowest. Unusually, the concrete is a 6mm aggregate mix with an exposed gravel aggregate finish. The walls are, by modern standards, extremely lightly reinforced with a single central layer of mild steel. Consequently, there was little spalling, which has been repaired with a site-- batched repair concrete.

Another unusual aspect is that the tower had two water tanks, one located approximately around the middle third of its height and the other at the top third. These had 300mm-thick heavily reinforced bases and a central octagonal shaft for access. Inner tank surfaces were waterproofed with 25mm of mastic asphalt. Around the exterior of the tower is an oak staircase, cantilevered from the walls. This was originally secured with bronze tie-roads, and leads to the top-level belvedere, which gives a panoramic view.

Around 1980, Leweston was put on the mains water supply and the tower became redundant. Over the next 20 years, the tower was allowed to decay, but the concrete structure and roof remained fundamentally sound. It was Grade II listed in October 1986, and two years later sold and converted for holiday accommodation.

In 1999, the property was bought by Patrick Firebrace, contracts manager for Concrete Repairs Ltd for the past 23 years. He appointed Roger Mears Architects to improve the earlier plans so they conformed to the Building Regulations. At the same time, he asked his structural engineer brother to justify his belief that the material used in the conversion should be concrete. The floor of the upper tank had to be completely removed as it did not coincide with sensible new floor levels, but the lower one could remain. Two new floors were to be built below it and two above.

At each new floor level, reinforcement dowels were set into the walls with polyester resin. Reinforcement was cut and bent on site and the concrete was a site-hatched Lytag mix of average cube strength 57MPa. This lightweight concrete was used primarily because of its better insulating properties since the new floors and wall would butt up to the concrete tower. It would also impose less dead weight on the supporting dowels and be lighter to pull up the tower.

Before concrete work began, the upper tank was removed by high-pressure water cutting. When the reinforcement was exposed, it became apparent that it had been bent on site as each bar spanned full width with bobbed ends into the wall. It could therefore be left in place, stiffening the top section of the tower until the new floor below was constructed.

After completion of the concrete work and fixing of new metal windows, the inner face of the tower was sprayed with SOmm polyurethane foam. The central shaft of the stairwell was filled with a glass block wall in a frame constructed from precast concrete columns and in-situ concrete beams. Around the bottom perimeter of the tower, an artificial Purbeck stone path was constructed in pattern-- imprinted concrete by Architectural Paving Systems.

There were two years between completion of the tower purchase to the finish of the conversion. During this period, an unwanted civil engineering concrete ruin designed by a leading 20th century architect and engineer has been restored and converted into a comfortable and interesting house.

Source: Concrete, Oct 2002 issue

Langeoog Water Tower

Some time ago a correspondent sent BWTAS a postcard of a water tower they had picked up on their holidays. They hadn't seen the tower but thought it was nearby. The card didn't name the tower and no one here had any idea where it was but now it turns out to be in Langeoog, (its name means 'Long Island') one of the inhabited Frisian islands in the southern North Sea belonging to Germany. Maybe this is a case of mystery marketing; "this is wonderful, don't tell anyone" is an effective tourism pitch.

Its clean air, low in pollen and particulates, made Langeoog very popular in the 19th Century as a health resort. The 1908 tower is the island's symbol and a tourist attraction. Living on what is not much more than a big sand dune in the ocean, fresh water is evidently precious to the residents. This tower is a European example of what is common in the USA of a water tower becoming the town's symbol and appearing on all its marketing materials and civic insignia.

Cars are not allowed onto the island and with its miles of deserted beaches, open skies and water sports, Langeoog is still a popular holiday destination which is why many photos of the tower appear on sites like Flickr. The rapidly changing light and weather reward the patient photographer. If you want to see what it's like now, there's a webcam pointed at it here.

Herringswell Water Tower

Image © Tony Wilding for Images of England

BWTAS has been asked to remove the contact details for this tower as it is now let to a private tenant.

The once dilapidated but now beautiful estate water tower at Herringswell Manor has been converted into a unique two bedroom detached apartment of approximately 224 m² (or 2411 ft²) with access to the court yard and views over fields and a horse stud from the living room at the top of the tower.

Herringswell Manor has had a variety of tenants in its history. It was once a medina for the devotees of the Baghwan Shree Rajneesh. It was later taken over by an award winning property developer.

The tower is close to Herringswell village about 3 miles from Mildenhall.

The National Monuments Record has these details:

IoE Number: 275773

Location: WATERTOWER AND FLANKING COACH HOUSES, 320 METRES EAST OF HERRINGSWELL ROAD HERRINGSWELL, FOREST HEATH, SUFFOLK
Date Photographed: 16 August 2003
Grade II listed

C.1907, built to serve Herringswell Manor, the estate of A.W. Ballance. The lower stage of the tower is of red brick, with grand central entrance gateway; moulded and hood-moulded 4-centred arched opening of terracotta with pair of boarded doors. Above is a 4-light window with leaded casements. Above a moulded brick cornice, the upper stage oversails on 4 sides, with exposed joist-ends and diagonal beams on brackets; walling and gables of half-timbering with rough-cast infill. Plaintiled swept pyramid roof in 2 stages, with a set- forward gable at the upper stages framing a clock with bell above. Weather-vane finial. The flanking coach-houses, gable front, with similar arched doorways. Included for group value. The timber-framed and weather-boarded ranges to rear are not of special interest.

Tavira Water Tower/Camera Obscura

BWTAS is British in name but not in its outlook. In the Moorish* town of Tavira in the Algarve, Portugal, there is a delightful camera obscura housed in a redundant 1931 concrete water tower. The Torre de Tavira was founded in 2004 by English astronomer Clive Jackson and his wife Gloria who also run astronomy holidays from their observatory in the Algarve.

Looking over the tower from a construction viewpoint, it seems to be typical of the Mouchel pattern with an Intze floor. There are many water towers in the Algarve region. Like the famous variety of Algarve chimneys, some have Moorish influences in their detailing but most of the larger municipal towers such as at Portimao are fairly basic as they were built during the economic hardships of the Salazar era.

The Torre de Tavira occupies a prominent position at the top of the town and is right next door to the Igreja de Santa Maria and the town's castle, all are popular tourist destinations.

So what is a Camera Obscura?

When inside the darkened room (the former tank) a rotating mirror in the roof projects the view of the town onto a dished table whilst the guide gives a narrated tour. The view is telescopic, bringing sights far away into view, but it also has a wide field of view as the image is projected large onto the table with incredible precision, like a super high-definition screen.The effect of seeing very distant people, cars, trains and boats moving with such clarity is truly amazing.

For this reason, camera obscuras were very popular in pre-television times. Britain still has several although many have been lost and there is one in the Foredown Tower in Brighton which is situated in a..... yes, a former water tower.

If you plan to visit this tower, try not to confuse it with the Torre Tavira in Cadiz, Spain which is also a great camera obscura too but is NOT in a converted water tower. The tower, in the Baroque style, was part of the Palace of the Marquis of Recano whose first watchman, Antonio Tavira, gave it its name.

Some BWTAS members think there are a number of sites in the UK where concrete or metal water towers are ripe for this kind of conversion. The Jacksons have submitted plans for an astronomy 'Astrotel'. Seeing how well the camera obscura has been done, we wish them every success.

Thanks again to David Blackburn for his image.

Shrubland Park Water Tower

Coddenham, North of Ipswich OS Map ref TM128530

Shrubland Park is one of the finest examples of an Italianate house and garden in England. Sir Charles Barry, architect of the Houses of Parliament, and Sir Humphrey Repton were the garden's principal designers. A water tower is still in use. It is of square construction in Suffolk white brick, heavily butressed with a battlement top about 80 feet high. The main tank is about 30,000 gallons in cast iron sections bolted together. The tank is filled by a well estimated at 120 feet deep adjacent to the tower. The tower is part of the site of the Old Hall and is it thought the well is even older. The hall was begun in the 1770's and altered and extended in the 1840's. The tower builders went to some length to make the tower an acceptable feature in the landscape.

The sale of the park was announced in 2006 and as far as we know it remains closed to the public.

Orwell Park School Water Tower

Orwell Park was once the home of the wealthy Victorian luminary Colonel George Tomline [1812 - 1889]. Tomline was an MP and was elected unopposed several times in rotten boroughs which then were commonplace. Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel once said the cleverest men in England were Tomline and his schoolfriend William Gladstone, in that order.

Tomline never married and his wealth, house and grounds were devoted to his patronage of the arts and sciences. He had one of the finest art collections in England including works by Holbein and Murillo and he built up a great library with many first and rare editions.

He purchased the 30,000 acre estate around 1848 or 1850 from Sir Robert Harland. He had the original house demolished and replaced with a red brick Italianate design, the grandest of three plans submitted to him. A rejected design is displayed at the school that now occupies the house. Over the years Tomline purchased vast areas of adjoining land including most of the Colneis Hundred to create the port of Felixstowe.

The house and the water tower were built between 1868 - 1873, firstly by eminent architect William Burn but after his death, most of the design is the work of his successor John MacVicar Anderson. His notable buildings include the mansions of Althorp, Brampton & Blankney Hall, Cheswardine Hall, Iden Manor and many commercial buildings including Coutts Bank in the Strand, the Carlton Club, the Royal Scottish Hospital and Royal Caledonian Asylum. He was president of the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1891 to 1894.

Tomline was a keen astronomer. The water tower is matched by a clock tower and an observatory tower which still has a 26 cm refractor, at the time the largest telescope in private hands. The water tower powered a hydraulic lift to the observatory.

Tomline was thought foolish at first to buy the estate when it hadn't got a reliable water supply (all the wells had turned brackish) but a spring was found in the woods a half mile away from the house. Along with the water tower there were filter beds which fed an underground reservoir and then an electric pump raised the water to a 10,000 gallon tank. From there it was fed to 26 tanks in the roof of the house.

The water tower had been in use up until recentlyand the tank is still intact. When the water supply to the school was switched to mains pressure, a number of leaks suddenly sprang up throughout the school. There's a saying "if it ain't broke...." When visited by BWTAS during the making of an episode of BBC Radio 4's Making History programme, the tower was being used for storage and housed the Ham Radio club. There are, as expected, stunning views from the top.


The school wonders what to do with the tower but are considering turning it into visitor's accommodation which could be let out during school holidays at the going rate.

Photo of Col. Tomline http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~ipswich/History/Tomline.jpg

Sources: http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~ipswich/Observatory/Founding.htm

Dame Mary Bolles Water Tower

Heath, Nr Wakefield, North Yorkshire NMR Number: SE 32 SE 20.

For centuries before piped water became generally available there occurred the occasional ambitious and ingenious scheme to bring it to the dwelling of the rich or influential.

In 1505 Richard de Wombwell, prior of Nostell, had conduit pipes laid from a well in Ryhill to take its water to the Priory (now a National Trust property). The well-head, recently restored, remains a feature of the landscape today.

About a hundred years later, this tower was erected above a natural spring and pumped fresh water via a water wheel to Old Heath Hall on the hill above. Mystery and wonder surround it as much today as it did in the 1600's. Both modern and ancient pagans consider the spring sacred and Dame Mary is said to have dabbled in witchcraft. She asked that the room where she died (in 1662) in the old hall should be sealed. When it was unsealed, 50 years later, it is claimed that her ghost appeared and proceeded to haunt the surrounding heath.

Lady Bolles (1579-1662) owned the Heath estate from 1635 until her death at the age of 80, having purchased the Hall from the Kay family. First married to Thomas Jobson of Cudworth and, after his death, to Thomas Bolles of Osberton, Notts, she was created a baronetess by Charles I. Lady Bolles's will, made in the year she died, refers to "the water tower or conduit, which she lately built, with the lead works and iron works belonging to it."

The system was an unusual, perhaps even unique. The spring fed into a cistern from which, in turn, water flowed to power an 18-foot wheel. This provided the force to pump some of the water to the top of the tower from which height it would pass, probably by means of an overhead, lead-lined conduit, to the gateway at the old Hall.

Here, a further building, designed with the appearance of a gatehouse or lodge, held the huge storage cistern. This building, of a similar style and stonework to the water tower, like other of the outbuildings at the Hall, bears Lady Bolles's coat of arms.

How long the system functioned is not known, but it may well have survived into the 19th century, though not, apparently, beyond the 1830s.

Lady Green, whose book, The Old Hall at Heath 1568- was published in 1889, refers to the tower and spring: "This spring used to be a very copious and never-failing stream, but it is much diminished by the sinking of a coal pit that tapped the water bearing stratum; nevertheless, it is excellent in colour and quality."

The spring does, in fact, still flow with perhaps no greater loss of force than Lady Green records.

The tower stimulates considerable curiosity but its real nature is even more striking than its strange isolation suggests since it is a very early survival of English skill in hydraulic engineering.

A video of the tower is here

(Thanks to David Blackburn for much of this information.)