Introduction
I've got a soft spot for Victorian-style architecture, so I was keen to check out this local water tower. I originally thought I didn’t have any internal shots of this, but I found some rare photos on my phone that I took, so I put them through Lightroom and thought I’d write a report, albeit around a year and a half after my visit.
History & Information
The water tower served the vast Benacre estate which consists of a Grade II listed country house and a large chunk of land with it.
According to an online blog post dating back to 2009, a few years after the tower was built in 1902 it housed a family who lived on the middle floor between the main pump room and the water tank. It’s not known how long it was lived in but the source suggests that a member of said family moved to New Zealand in 1910 so it may have only been short-term. There’s little structural/internal evidence of this so I’m not entirely sure what to make of it.
Here is a photo of the apparent family who lived in the tower: (Source: British Water Tower Appreciation Society)
The tower starting from the ground floor consists of the main pump room with a lovely spiral staircase leading to the first floor which is mainly an empty room and would have been the area in which the family would have been living. Further up is a large tank filled with stagnant water. More stairs lead further up the building and eventually to the roof which accommodates some active telecommunications masts, thus power is still running to the building.
The Explore
It was a very chilled out explore, there was no one around and there was a public footpath nearby. I would like to mention that I returned to this tower a few months later and it is now sealed with a CCTV camera. This is one of the best places I have ever been and I didn’t even appreciate it properly back then. I’d love to go back in with the camera, as I was just using my phone at the time. Although I’m sad that it’s now sealed I really hope they continue to keep a close eye on it as I’d hate to see this place get ruined by the undesirables.
Onto the photos:
I've got a soft spot for Victorian-style architecture, so I was keen to check out this local water tower. I originally thought I didn’t have any internal shots of this, but I found some rare photos on my phone that I took, so I put them through Lightroom and thought I’d write a report, albeit around a year and a half after my visit.
History & Information
The water tower served the vast Benacre estate which consists of a Grade II listed country house and a large chunk of land with it.
According to an online blog post dating back to 2009, a few years after the tower was built in 1902 it housed a family who lived on the middle floor between the main pump room and the water tank. It’s not known how long it was lived in but the source suggests that a member of said family moved to New Zealand in 1910 so it may have only been short-term. There’s little structural/internal evidence of this so I’m not entirely sure what to make of it.
Here is a photo of the apparent family who lived in the tower: (Source: British Water Tower Appreciation Society)
The tower starting from the ground floor consists of the main pump room with a lovely spiral staircase leading to the first floor which is mainly an empty room and would have been the area in which the family would have been living. Further up is a large tank filled with stagnant water. More stairs lead further up the building and eventually to the roof which accommodates some active telecommunications masts, thus power is still running to the building.
The Explore
It was a very chilled out explore, there was no one around and there was a public footpath nearby. I would like to mention that I returned to this tower a few months later and it is now sealed with a CCTV camera. This is one of the best places I have ever been and I didn’t even appreciate it properly back then. I’d love to go back in with the camera, as I was just using my phone at the time. Although I’m sad that it’s now sealed I really hope they continue to keep a close eye on it as I’d hate to see this place get ruined by the undesirables.
Onto the photos:
