No business like snow business...

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.

Water tower volunteer killed by train

BWTAS expresses its sympathies to the friends and family of Mr Graves who although unknown to us was apparently a dedicated volunteer at Carlshalton Water Tower:

Commuter killed after falling in front of train at Carshalton Beeches station

By Julia Kennard

A man killed in a freak accident may have been suffering from an epileptic fit when he collapsed on train tracks and was struck by a high-speed service. Philip Graves, 52, from Carshalton, died after being hit by the train on Sunday January 3 at 8.18pm at Carshalton Beeches station.

Mr Graves, who worked at Croydon Land Registry, had suffered from epilepsy according to his work colleagues and is believed to have been having from a fit when he was struck by the 8.09pm Sutton to Streatham Southern service.

A witness, who did not want to be named, was collecting train tickets from outside the station when he heard the impact of the collision.

He said: “A young lad came running up the side steps saying he thought someone had been hit by the train.

“I ran down and I guess naively, in the heat of the moment, expected to see someone injured, with a broken arm perhaps, or that just needed some help.

“The boy saw the next train was not due for 20 minutes, so he dialled 999, but the fast train came through within seconds.

“You couldn’t have much worse luck; to have a fit on a station and then fall onto the tracks, it was a tragic accident."

Neighbours of Mr Graves said he used to volunteer with the Royal British Legion and help raise funds for the upkeep of Carshalton Water Tower, a Grade II listed early 18th century garden building.

His father Stanley died last year; his mother Joan is in a nursing home and his sister is believed to live in Southampton.

Retired Jack and Jeanette Short, who lived next door to Mr Graves, said he would be missed.

Mr Short, 65, said: “He was involved in the poppy collection for the British Legion as his father also used to take an active interest - he was a former Red Cap with the Royal Military Police.

“His mother also used to be chairwoman of the local branch.”

Carshalton Water Tower secretary Julia Gertz said Mr Graves was a “valuable asset and quite a character” and would be “greatly missed.”

Terry McHale, line manager at Croydon Land Registry facilities department, said Mr Graves had worked for the Registry for about 25 years and was well-liked among his many colleagues.

He said: “He was one of the millions of people that don’t get noticed, but was a dilligent worker, who performed his duties quite religiously. He was an ordinary person, but one that just got on with it, did not make a fuss and did a thorough job.

“His death has been a big shock, particularly given the circumstances of his life.”

Police are not treating his death as suspicious.

A file is being prepared for the coroner.

Did you know Mr Graves? Leave a tribute by calling Julia Kennard on 0208 330 9541 or email jkennard@london.newsquest.co.uk

Soup to nuts

A breaking news story:

The Lynn News reports that English Heritage (the quango with the most clout in these matters) has decided not to list the Campbell's soup tower (a water tower) that has dominated the skyline for fifty years in the town and is a object of local affection, as water towers often are. This paves the way for site developer Tesco to demolish it.

While BWTAS takes a neutral stance on preservation issues, it does take issue with the criteria used to determine "architectural merit" as all the studies of water towers we've seen published, including those by English Heritage, say knowledge of the subject is scant, which of course is our raison d'être. 


According to the paper's letters page, there's no shortage of support for the tower and even some serious proposals for alternative use, such as a climbing wall facility, which other water towers have been successfully converted to.

If you want to raise a stink, perhaps start with contacting the Lynn News news desk; newsdesk@lynnnews.co.uk or leave a comment on their Facebook site or here. Even better, write to your MP and ask them to ask the Secretary of State for Culture to reconsider.

Campbell's Tower will be demolished

Campbell's Tower - doomed

Published Date: 06 January 2010

THE last ditch bid to save the landmark Campbell's Tower at Lynn has crumbled.

English Heritage and the Secretary of State for Culture have decided against granting listed status to the tower, leaving the site's new owners, Tesco, free to demolish it and change the town's skyline forever.

Lynn Civic Society admits it is disappointed by the ruling but has said that it wants to work with the supermarket giant to make sure the history of the soup factory and tower is catalogued and features in the new development.

The bid to save the 50-year-old tower was backed by conservationists and by Lynn readers who took part in an on-line poll. But this week English Heritage decided it is not important enough to save.

It said in a statement: "While we are sensitive that there is a lot of local affection for the former soup factory, and especially the water tower, our role is to objectively assess the claims made for listing.
We must do this in the context of its national significance and special historical and architectural interest.

"Unfortunately, this building does not merit adding to the list."

Elizabeth James, the Civic Society member who masterminded the listing application, said: "Yes, we are disappointed. We didn't know whether or not we would be successful but thought we should at least make the attempt.

"The warm response of the public to the publicity had made clear the affection in which the tower is held and which, indeed, is recognised by EH's own researchers.

"Its report is certainly not unsympathetic to the building and agrees that the tower is undoubtedly of local significance. But too many other elements militated against listing."

She said that Tesco's corporate affairs manager and planning adviser Nick Gellatly has agreed to display historical information about the tower in a new building and would like to hear from people who worked on the factory during its construction so that reminiscences can be compiled and kept.

He has asked to meet the Civic Society again early in the New Year.

Clifton water tower hunt

updated 6/7/10 (see bottom of page).




Over the last few days the wires at BWTAS have been humming. After coming across this 1994 online newspaper article (which had stripped out the relevant images) about a tower near Clifton in Somerset, some members have been trying to locate an image of it but it has been elusive. This is nothing new to water tower hunters but this time we thought we'd do a bit of crowd-sourcing and see if anyone can help us locate an image via this blog.

It's not this observatory, often misidentified as a water tower, near the Clifton bridge.

It's not this 1957 concrete water tower also in sight of the bridge on Stoke Road (via Geograph).

It's not the 1905 Knowle Water Tower in Jubilee Road in Bristol which is close to the Cadburys factory (via Clare Johnson).

It's very like to be this tower located on the corner of St. Mary's Road and Church Road in Leigh Wood but we'd really like a street level photo to properly match the description (via Bing).

Can anyone help us locate a better image and whatever became of the water tower's owner Mr. West in the end?

If you have an image of this tower, please send us a link via the comments page.

THE INDEPENDENT Thursday, 12 May 1994

HARRY WEST has always had an eye for nice old buildings that other people have finished with and want to pull down. Years ago, as director of the Greater London Arts Association, he showed local authorities how to convert banana warehouses into film studios.

In 1976, newly-retired as a recreational teacher, the wartime Hurricane fighter pilot saw a 47ft- tall castellated Victorian water tower for sale in Leigh Woods, Bristol.

The stone tower, with its commanding views, had been built in 1868, four years after Brunel's Clifton suspension bridge crossing the nearby Avon Gorge. Its owners, the Bristol Waterworks Company, had put it on the market with planning permission for demolition and replacement by a block of flats.

'I told them knocking it down would be a crime against humanity,' Mr West said.

The building was not listed, but even though Woodspring District Council tried to do so, there was little enthusiasm at the time for preserving industrial architecture and the Department of the Environment ruled that it was of local, not national, interest.

Mr West said: 'In fact it was one of the first towers of its kind in Britain. It was built to provide water for the Cadburys and Wills and their retainers, including two gigantic family Victorian houses for the Wills. So it's in this exclusive gentlemen's residential area and as water towers go, it's posh.'

Mr West sank his life savings into a five-room conversion job that respected the old tower's history. He removed 35 tons of stone by hand to create windows for living rooms, bathrooms and a big third-floor guest room.

'I tried to keep the concept of a tower so you walk through the front door and up the building with open-plan stairs,' he said.

'I retained all the industrial features like the 30ft pipe which delivered water to the people of Leigh Woods and is now a chimney for my wood-burning stove.'

The original 25ft-square water tank, built by Bristol Wagon Works in 1867 and weighing 300 tons when full, is still in place surrounded by a gallery.

Now aged 72, and with his eyesight failing, Mr West has decided the time has come to pass on his personal act of conservation to a younger generation.

After 22 years inside the tower's 4ft-thick walls, he has put the old tower on the market for offers in excess of £245,000.

Suffering from glaucoma and soon no longer able to drive, he wants to move to Bristol to be able to continue his latest career as a teacher of ballroom dancing.

'I've got to move on, to do new things as I've always done, to travel,' he said. 'But I'll miss the old tower. It's got my heart and soul in it now.'

6/7/10 update

Bingo! 

Thanks to Wilco Krul of the Netherlands who was holidaying in England, we now have an image of the tower in Leigh Woods. Thank you Mr Krul. The 'crowd sourcing' experiment is declared a success.

Landmark Lendal Tower up for sale

The Lendal Tower in the city of York is up for sale. Previously described in this blog, according to the Yorkshire Post the 700 year old tower is on the market for £650,000 in a distress sale of the assets of colourful property speculator David Hattersley.

The particulars available from Carter Jonas include the tower and several buildings and cottages.

From the Yorkshire Post:

Seven hundred years of history

Lendal Tower has stood next to the River Ouse since about 1300. It was built to help defend the city and housed a great iron chain that could be pulled across the river to the Barker Tower opposite. This gave protection in times of trouble and enabled tolls to be levied on river traffic. In 1677, the tower was leased for 500 years to the York Waterworks company established by Henry Whistler. It became the city's first waterworks with a horse- powered pump supplying the water via pipes made from hollowed out tree trunks.

After Mr Whistler died the concern was sold to Col William Thornton of Cattal and later to Jerome Dring in 1779 for £7,000 with shares held by John Smeaton, designer of the Eddystone Lighthouse. Mr Smeaton helped improve the steam engine at the waterworks, which in 1836 was given its own dedicated engine house. Lendal Tower's tank was also removed in the mid-1800s lowering the building by 10ft, and railway architect George Townsend Andrews added the medieval, crenellated roof. It was then used as stores and offices for the waterworks company that eventually became part of Yorkshire Water.

Stanbridge Road, Leighton Buzzard (1896)

This photograph of the Victorian water tower, that stood to the south of Stanbridge Road, at about SP 935 247, was kindly sent to me by Bedford Borough Council after I found details of this tower on their web site. The tower was about a hundred feet high and was demolished in the 1950's. The official guide to Leighton Buzzard of 1910 noted: "The council are the owners of the waterworks and provide a constant supply of pure and wholesome water, which is provided free of cost for domestic purposes. The water is obtained from a well over 200 feet deep, bored into the lower greensand, and is capable of yielding a supply of 164,000 gallons per day. The latest analysis made by an eminent public analyst states that the water is "simply perfect" and "is excellent water for public supply"".

There was another water tower about about 400 feet away, to the east at RAF Stanbridge. This too has beeen taken down. If anyone has any further information on either tower, please leave a comment.

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.

Water tower tea cosy

Here at BWTAS we're somewhat mystified as to why, perhaps someone will explain, but we came across this neat film of crochet artist Robyn Love with the assistance of the ad agency  TAXI transforming a New York City water tower (one of those Rosenwach wooden ones) with a pencil tea-cosy as some sort of stunt for the Designers & Art Directors Awards in 2008. We love it, whatever it is.

L'Auberge Hotel in Punta del Este, Uruguay

"More than five decades old, the famous water tower of L'Auberge rises, majestic, amidst the tall pines, and is a silent witness of the evolution of the hotel, the tea room and all the Parque del Golf neighborhood..." so says the website of this first class hotel in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

When BWTAS saw these photos, the inspiration from the great houses and estates of Britain was obvious. This place is reminiscent of Surrey but with better beaches and weather and fewer frightfully, awfully, awfully types.

You can view some panoramic images from the top of the tower which is open to the public. There are rooms in the tower as well as suites and chalets in the grounds. Many tourist guides say that the afternoon tea at the hotel is a national institution. 

Even more interesting perhaps is the architect behind the tower who is recognised in his own country but not in the English speaking world. The water tower was designed in 1947 to be the focus of a resort development for the wealthy by Arturo J. Dubourg [1912- 2003], who must have been a swell guy, notching up over 300 major projects to his credit as well as being a tennis champion and a successful racing driver for Grey Rock, the name of one of his houses and a Peugeot car dealership. There are copious references to his work on the web in Spanish covering condominums, houses, hotels, offices and stores.

South American friends tell BWTAS that Uruguay is a bargain holiday destination for Argentinians and Brazilians so a visit to this tower may be within the reach of visitors from Great Britain. Another popular destination in Punta del Este is the hotel-sculpture Casapueblo. If you go there, please let us know.

A new member writes...

BWTAS are really pleased to hear from Alf in Norwich who has written to us "I have been enjoying your website for free for a couple of years so I enclose a cheque for £10 to salve my conscience and help with funds."


Alf: please consider yourself absolved and now a fully paid up member of BWTAS. One of the last few copies of The Water Towers of East Anglia is on its way to you in the SAE you helpfully provided.


Your generosity makes us think we are worthy of a Paypal donation button on this site. Then again such things bring their own issues. Perhaps that is something to be raised at a committee meeting. As we now have several members in Norwich, it's about time we held a meeting there.