Southwold Water Towers

I find I have a personal connection with the two Southwold Water Towers.
​click here for an image

The earlier tower was built by The Southwold Water Works Company , which was   founded in 1886. One of its first Secretaries is Southwold's Town Clerk, Solicitor, Ernest Read Cooper who practised at the Company's Registered Office, No 1 Market Place, followed, in 1924, by my grandfather, Lenny Septimus Harrisson also a solicitor.


'Work started in 1886 on building the first water tower which is about 40 ft high.. The tank has a capacity of 40,000 gallons and is surmounted by a wind pump which draws water from a well, initially of some 60 ft deep. The use of wind-power on a watertower is an innovative idea in its day.

Water from the tower was piped to homes and businesses across a large part of the town, gradually replacing Southwold's many domestic wells and the communal Town Pump in the Market Place built earlier by the Child Foundry.'

There is more to tell - but that will wait for another day. I thank the www.southwoldandson.co.uk  website for this information.

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