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Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands
Date 2007
Event ID 882088
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/882088
With its battered coursed red-rubble sandstonewalls topped by machicolated battlements this water tower is a dramatic feature of the Arbroath skyline and an impressive example of high Victorian achievement in a local context. Its details from a plaque on the tower read:
‘THE WATER TOWER. The drought of 1870 and the increase in housing around Arbroath precipitated the Arbroath Corporation to seek a supplementary water supply. By 1882 the Water Committee of the Police Board had resolved to sink the
wells between Holt Loans and Keptie Hill on ground leased from Mr. Colvill’s patrons and to erect distribution tanks on the hill with a pumping station at the wells.
The Police Board sought permission from Mr. Colvill’s patrons to erect a tank on Keptie Hill. However, the Patrons disapproved of the building sketched for them by the Superintendent of Police and were of the opinion that ‘‘having regard to the prominent situation the building will occupy, it is essential that the proposed erection shall be of an ornate character’’.
Friockheim architect, W. Gillespie Lamont designed the water tower for a fee of £55 and Archibald Anderson was the builder of the project which cost roughly £8,000. In July 1885 the water was turned on from Keptie Hill. When full the
three tanks held almost 200,000 gallons, each tank weighing 284 tons. However, the water tower proved insufficient for the increasing demand for water and a plan to take a supply from the Noran Water at Glenogil was completed in 1908,
thus making the water tower surplus to requirements.’
Lamond (1854–1912), his name is incorrectly spelt above, also practised as a civil engineer. After a dispute, the building of the tower was supervised by the Corporation’s Surveyor, hence the smallness of Lamond’s fee.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007b
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.