Water Tower At Ashton Wold

This is a private water tower built around 1900 in a Vernacular Revival style by the architect William Huckvale. Its purpose was to pump water from the River Nene to the buildings across the Ashton Estate.

Construction and Materials

The tower is constructed of coursed, rock-faced limestone that is snecked (irregularly sized stones fitted together). The roof is covered in Collyweston limestone slate, a traditional material from the area. Windows are timber-framed with mullions and transoms, featuring top sections that open inward. All external doors are simple vertical boarding painted in the Rothschild estate livery, with no glazing or openings.

Layout and Design

The building has a rectangular plan comprising a tower with an attached lower range. The ground floor of the lower range contains ancillary rooms and pump rooms, whilst above are a reservoir and water tanks.

The design represents a restrained interpretation of the Vernacular Revival style. The main tower body is reinforced by angled buttresses at each corner. The upper section of the tower projects outward (jettied) and is supported on a solid limestone corbel table. Louvered vents sit beneath a hipped roof with corbelled eaves detail. Access to the tower at ground level is through a pair of vertical boarded doors, whilst two metal ladders at the rear provide access to the roof.

The lower range features plain stonework with no decoration, and is blind above ground floor level. The upper storey has a castellated parapet concealing a large metal-lined reservoir, which is reinforced with tensioning wires. The building is generally unadorned; the only decorative elements are a pair of finials at either end of the hipped roof and a wrought iron lamp bracket above the door on the south elevation.

Interior

The ground floor has a large central room with internal doors connecting to smaller rooms on either side. Two smaller storage rooms at the west end can only be accessed from outside. One of the central rooms contains a fireplace, along with original pipework and a copper set within a brick and concrete surround in the north-west corner. The reservoir floor above is reinforced metal supported on I-section metal beams, the central one of which rests on a pair of cast iron columns. The interior brickwork is painted and modern lighting was installed in the late 20th century. The tower section has an exposed timber roof and a cast iron water tank secured by metal tensioning rods.

Historical Context

The Ashton Estate, extending from the River Nene near Oundle westward to Ashton Wold in the east, has been occupied since Roman times. In the 18th century it was a well-known sporting estate with avenues of chestnut trees planted in a cross pattern as rides, and several fox coverts. In the early 19th century the estate belonged to William Walcot and was largely tenant-farmed, with Ashton Wold continuing as sporting ground. However, there is no evidence it ever contained a manor house. When Lionel Rothschild purchased it in 1860, the sale particulars described it as "a very valuable and important landed estate" with sporting advantages but no house suitable for a gentleman's occupation.

Neither Lionel Rothschild nor his son Nathaniel Mayer, 1st Lord Rothschild (1840-1915), showed much interest in the estate. The only 19th-century structural work was the construction of a hunting lodge at Ashton Wold. However, when Lord Rothschild's second son, Nathaniel Charles (1877-1923)—known as Charles—discovered Ashton by chance during a butterfly-collecting expedition with the vicar of Polebrook, he was so impressed by the area's rich fauna and flora that he persuaded his father to build him a house on the hunting lodge site.

Lord Rothschild commissioned William Huckvale to design not only a house but a model farm and complete suite of estate buildings. These included the Steward's house, stables, gardeners' accommodation, a building for a fire engine, a petrol store, kennels (now derelict), and a dog hospital. Most cottages in nearby Ashton village were rebuilt to create a model village. The Rothschilds became the first landowners in the country to provide their tenants with both running filtered water and electricity. The electricity was generated by turbines in an old mill below the village on the River Nene, from where water was also pumped to this water tower for distribution to the estate buildings. Each cottage had a bath house and was set in a large garden planted with a lilac, a laburnum, and fruit trees.

Little is known about Huckvale, who worked mainly for the Rothschilds and therefore had no need to publicise his work in architectural journals. He was not a member of the RIBA. After establishing his own practice in London, he came into contact with Alexander Parks, agent to Lord Rothschild. He designed numerous buildings for the Rothschilds on the Tring Park estate, undertook considerable work at the Rothschild bank in New Court in the City of London, and was the architect for the Royal Mint Refinery. He also worked on the Rothschild estate at Aston Clinton. The quality of his work is reflected in the 42 listed buildings already attributed to him: 13 in Tring and 29 on the Ashton Estate.

Charles Rothschild was a renowned naturalist who became the country's leading expert on fleas, publishing around 150 scientific papers. He was also interested in other fields, including cultivating rare orchids, irises, and water lilies. He was a pioneer conservationist, arguing that entire natural habitats needed protection, not just rare species.

Following his death in 1923 and that of his wife Rozsika in 1940, their daughter Miriam (1908-2005) inherited the estate. The house was commandeered as a hospital during the Second World War, and the gardens and estate suffered considerable damage and neglect. Like her father, Miriam was deeply involved in conservation and continued his work with fleas, becoming an international expert in her own right. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society, received eight honorary degrees, and was appointed DBE for her services to the study of natural history.