Hydraulic Accumulator Tower To West Of The Dock Tower

GRIMSBY

TA2711SE ROYAL DOCK, The Docks 699-1/5/130 Hydraulic Accumulator Tower to west 31/10/74 of the Dock Tower (Formerly Listed as: THE DOCKS Tower on opposite pier to west of main Dock Tower)

GV II*

Hydraulic accumulator tower. 1892 for The Grimsby Dock Company. Red-brown brick with ashlar dressings. EXTERIOR: square tower 78 ft tall. Single stage. Round-headed door to south side. Each side has a full-height panel with chamfered brick reveals to the bottom and sides and a dentilled and chamfered cornice to the top. Each panel contains 4 tiers of narrow twin round-headed openings with stone sills, chamfered jambs and rubbed-brick arches. One of the second-tier openings on the west side has C20 blocking. East and west sides have small single stone panel between and below the second tier of openings, and a central vertical row of iron fixing bolts. Stone band. Top section with imitation machicolations and brick-coped parapet with pointed arched crenellations, the corner ones with ashlar caps. INTERIOR: not inspected. HISTORY: this accumulator tower was built to provide high-pressure hydraulic power to move the gates to the east and west locks to the Royal Dock (qv), and to power dockside machinery. It largely superseded the earlier Dock Tower (qv). The design of its cap echoes that of the earlier tower. It was superseded in 1980 by an electrically-driven oil-hydraulic system. Together, this accumulator tower and the earlier Dock Tower form a unique and important survival of early hydraulic systems, illustrating the development in hydraulic power technology from low-pressure to high-pressure operation. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N, Harris J, and Antram N: Lincolnshire: London: 1989-: 343; A guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Lincolnshire & S.Humbs: Wright NR: Lincoln: 1983-: 16-18; Ambler RW: Great Grimsby Fishing Heritage: a brief for a trail: Grimsby Borough Council: 1990-: 21-22).

Listing NGR: TA2779211379