Water Tower on Tower Hill is a Grade II* listed building in the West Lancashire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 22 March 1976. Water tower. 2 related planning applications.
Water Tower on Tower Hill
- WRENN ID
- errant-storey-pearl
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- West Lancashire
- Constituency
- West Lancashire MP: Ashley Dalton (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 22 March 1976
- Type
- Water tower
- Address
- Water Tower on Tower Hill, L39 2EE
- OS grid reference
- SD 423 084
- Coordinates
- 53.56952, -2.87245
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The water tower on Tower Hill in Ormskirk was built between 1853 and 1854 for the Ormskirk Local Board of Health and is now derelict. It is constructed from coursed squared sandstone and features a dilapidated slate roof. The tower has a square plan and is designed in the Romanesque style. It is a tall structure with two narrow full-height Romanesque arches on each side, all featuring stepped surrounds and arch-bands, linked by an impost band that runs around the tower. The plain frieze includes carved grotesques at the corners, and there is prominent corbelling in a machicolated form. At the top, the tower is surmounted by a large tank enclosed by what appears to be ashlar walling, and it has a pyramidal roof that is now missing most of its slates. This water tower is an unusual survival of an early Local Board waterworks structure and serves as a conspicuous landmark on the east side of the town.
Local climate
Water Tower on Tower Hill sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,220 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 92% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 93% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 16 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 84% of listed buildings. Of these, 7 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- Sale history — 1 transaction since 2016
- Related listed building consents — 2 applications
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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