Water Tower at Minley Manor

Water Tower, 245m south of Minley Manor, 1896 for Laurence Currie, attributed to Arthur Castings.

MATERIALS: red brick laid in English bond with limestone dressings and flint chequerwork with a slate roof.

PLAN: the water tower is situated 250m south of Minley Manor. It has a square plan with a circular stair turret on the south elevation.

EXTERIOR: the principal elevation faces west and is in three stages; it has a raised paved platform in front, reached by four stone steps with low retaining walls with moulded copings. The ground floor of the tower is of stone with knapped flint chequer-work above the entrance, which is within a canted bay. The architrave is chamfered and above is a blind ogee arch with grotesque stops and cusped relief mouldings beneath a crocketed finial. The returns have a four centre arched opening. Above is a small, two-light mullioned window in a chamfered stone frame. Brickwork above is plain up to a stone corbel table of pseudo-machicolations. On three faces there is a half-dormer with a stone mullioned and transomed window beneath a half-hipped roof which is set against the main roof, which is flared at the base and clad in fishscale slates. An octagonal lantern on a tall base, and with an ogival copper roof surmounted by a finial, rises from the apex. The stair turret attached to the side of the tower is brick with stone drip moulds and small windows in stone surrounds beneath a separate conical roof, also clad in fishscale slates.

INTERIOR: the entrance is open to the interior, which is a single cell with an inner doorway to the stair. Walls are lined with terracotta mosaic and the ceiling is boarded timber with a plaque dated 1896 in Roman numerals. Red and white limestone is laid in a geometric pattern on the floor; a stone bench is built into the wall.