Water Tower, Boiler House And Railings, Boughton Water Pumping Station

Water Tower, Boiler House and Railings, Boughton Water Pumping Station

A water tower, boiler house and attached railings, built 1851–53 by F L Bateman, consultant engineer to the Chester Waterworks Company. The tower was raised in 1884 and again in the mid-20th century. The structures are built in English bond brick with ashlar and tooled sandstone ashlar dressings, some darker brick dressings, and slate roof coverings to pitched roofs.

The water tower comprises a circular plan structure of 3 stages above a basement, with extensions to the upper level. It is designed in a robust Italianate style. Giant pilasters rise from a rusticated ashlar basement plinth with base and capitals to entablature and cornice. Between these run full-height blind, keyed, round-arched panels. A later top section introduces a moulded band and rectangular blind panels set alternately horizontally and vertically, beneath a further 20th-century extension. The basement has flat-headed doorways and windows, the ground and first floors have segmental-arched windows, and the second floor has blind round-arched windows with 6 over 6-pane sashes. The roof is finished with a cast-iron ridge and eaves cornice. A truncated chimney is integral to the tower structure.

The single-storey boiler house is attached to the north side on a single-depth plan, with double doors facing the canal.

Internally, the tower is divided into 6 sections by radiating walls, with a winder stair winding round the central chimney, rising to a metal roof. The beam engine house to the north retains its original cast-iron entablature with egg and dart moulding, beam floor and other details.

This complex formed the most prominent component of the former Tower Works, a river abstraction and water treatment works built for the Chester Waterworks Company in 1851–53. The site was powered by a Cornish beam engine manufactured at Adam Woodward's Queens Foundry in Manchester. The original scheme incorporated 3 sand filters and a brick-vaulted reservoir. The water tower was heightened from 70 to 84 feet in 1884 by jacking up the tank. In 1913, a diesel engine house was added to the complex, with further additions including a Davey horizontal steam engine, site offices and laboratory.

Cast-iron railings are attached to the side dogleg stair serving the north engine house. The group also includes the diesel pump house of 1913. The complex retains significant remnants of the early beam engine house and engine housing, as well as diesel engines and pumps, and represents a well-preserved example of an ambitious, architecturally distinguished and innovative design by a notable water supply engineer. Such ensembles were at the heart of newly-developed 19th-century water supply systems, which significantly improved public health and enhanced lives by providing reliable supplies of clean drinking water.