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Montrose Waterworks, Filter House
Filter House (20th Century)
Site Name Montrose Waterworks, Filter House
Classification Filter House (20th Century)
Canmore ID 121930
Site Number NO76SW 65
NGR NO 71194 61906
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/121930
- Council Angus
- Parish Montrose
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District Angus
- Former County Angus
NO76SW 65 7120 6190
Built in 1910, this red brick, slate roofed structure was originally 7 bays in length and 3 bays in width. There is a tower on the N side. Two further bays were added at the E end in 1960.
Visited by RCAHMS (MKO) 9 March 1996.
Large, distinctive 9- x 3-bay, symmetrical, gabled former water filter plant with prominent crenellated tower to N. Red brick in Flemish Garden Wall bond. Base course, raised cills. Bays with almost full-height, slightly recessed panels, separated by pilaster strips. Segmental-arched window openings to N and S elevations. Gable elevations to E & W with decorative sawtooth design at wallhead. E gable with dedication plaque (see below). Some timber sliding doors. Some single-storey lean-tos to S. Windows mainly boarded: some multi-pane timber sashes remain. Roof mainly with grey and purple slates: some asbestos roofing. Some rooflights with broken glazing.
This is a well-detailed former water filter plant which is distinguished by its crenellated tower. The decorative brick detailing is notable and adds a distinction to the former industrial building. The building is situated on a small hill to the North of Montrose and has some presence in the distant landscape. It is likely that the central 4-bays together with the tower were built in 1910 and the other flanking bays added in the 1960s.
The 1st Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1868 depicts a reservoir at this site, and with further Kinnaber Water Works buildings to the East, at the opposite side of a railway. By the map of 1927, 2 reservoirs and a filter house are depicted on this site and there is a pumping station to the East. It seems likely that as the town of Montrose expanded, so did the requirement for clean water and this led to the building of this water filter.
The importance of providing clean drinking water to every household became particularly pertinent after cholera was discovered to have been linked to the drinking of impure water in the mid 19th century. Water filter plants and towers were often fine municipal structures and some were focal points in the landscape, such as at Cambusbarron, near Stirling. At Whittinghame in East Lothian , the filter station is set into the hillside to complement the landscape. (Historic Scotland)
Publication Account (2013)
The burgh’s situation on a spit between the sea and Montrose Basin meant some trouble had to be taken to bring in fresh water. Wells and aquifers played a part but piped water arrived in 1841 with an octagonal water tower at North Esk Road. A Tudor style helped it to compliment rather than detract from an important urban skyline. The architect was William Middleton. Now it is a private house on A92.
This was supplemented at the nearest hill to the town by a square brick tower with a castellated top built in 1910 over a reservoir, close to Sunnyside Asylum (itself one of the best set of asylum buildings in Scotland, and equipped with its own water tower and workshops). Below this at NO7132 6205 is the Montrose Town Council Pumping Station and Turbine House, rebuilt in 1914, of stone and slate. It extracted water from the North Esk, filtered it and utilised the fall originally taken by Upper Kinnaber Mills to pump water to the tower on the hill by water turbine. This system is no longer in use.
M Watson, 2013
