Water Tower, Chester
The Water Tower (originally known as the New Tower ) is a tower erected in the 14th century in Chester, Cheshire, England, which is connected by a spur wall with Bonewaldesthorne Tower on the city walls of Chester. The tower and the wall section is classified as a Grade I listed building. Originally the tower was called the New Tower, but was referred to in the 17th century as the Water Tower, although the town meeting trying to maintain the correct name. He was classified on 28 July 1955 at the Grade I listed building as.
History
The tower was built in 1322-1325 and was then in the River Dee. It is connected to Bonewaldesthorne 's Tower by a random wall of the city wall. The architect was John (de) Helpston, who had also built forts for King Edward II in North Wales. The primary purpose of the work was to defend the port of Chester, and he has also been used to monitor vessel traffic and to ensure that the relevant duties and taxes were paid. The construction cost of the tower and the throat wall amounted to £ 100 ( adjusted for inflation in today's prices 30,000 pound sterling) in the late 16th century, the river was silted up and the tower stood on dry land. In 1639, the tower with the financial resources of the city was renovated and in the following decade the loopholes have been extended in the throat wall in order to make them useful for guns. In the English Civil War the tower was attacked and damaged. From 1671 on, he was hired as a warehouse and was described in 1728 as " useless and neglected ".
The Chester Mechanics' Institution was founded in 1835. They wanted to set up in the tower is a museum to display their artifacts. The city council leased the tower and the adjacent Bonewaldesthorne 's Tower of the Association at a nominal price and 1838 the museum was opened. The union was dissolved in 1876, and the exhibits came into the possession of the city administration. Although it was clear at this point that the tower was not very suitable as a museum, the objects remained there, because at that time was no other place to exhibit them. In the years 1901-1902, the museum was closed because the city walls were rebuilt. 1903 was the reopening and this year were 12,000 visitors. 1916, the towers were closed to the public in 1920 and leased to another use. In 1954, Grosvenor Museum bought the buildings in 1962 and made it public again accessible. Today the tower is about 180 meters from the river bank and is probably the least-altered medieval tower in Chester.
Architecture
The tower and leading him to stab walls are made of roughly hewn stones of sandstone. The tower is approximately 29 m high, the connecting wall has a length of 29.5 m, 3.3 m wide and about 7.3 m high. An archway in the city wall leads to the 44 stairs that lead down to the tower. The wall has battlements and is probably the only remaining section of the medieval battlements of the city. The tower is round at its base, to him sits a square platform. It contains two octagonal rooms, one for each floor. A pointed arch door opening allows access from the wall into the lower space. In the angle between the tower and the wall a small latrine is fitted. Five stone steps lead down to the level of the lower chamber of the entrance. The walls of the tower are more than 3.6 m thick here. Originally, the walls had loopholes, but these were later walled up, and their location can be seen only from the outside. A circular staircase with 23 steps leads up to the upper chamber, whose walls four embrasures are distributed. In addition there is a platform that overlooks the entrance to the tower.