Building record 12000/1 - Chester City Walls - Water Tower or New Tower

The Water Tower (or New Tower) is situated at the west end of the spur wall, and was built between 1322 and 1325 by John Helpstone for 100 at the city’s expense (7). At that time, the river flowed up to it. The tower is cylindrical, of coursed red sandstone rubble, c 22m high, with a slight batter c 5.2m high to a solid base that has been refaced. It is joined to the main defences by a massive spur wall over 30m long, under which is a water-gate restored in 1730. The tower was intended to be ‘in the water of the Dee’, but had been left high and dry within a century. By the seventeenth century it had been abandoned, and in 1631 the Bakers’ company offered to rent and repair it, and in 1639 it was repaired at the city’s expense. Leased as a storehouse in 1671, the tower continued to be employed for similar purposes for much of the next century. In 1728 it was described as useless and neglected, and was improved in 1825. In 1837 it was leased as a museum, and has remained one since then. The name Water Tower came into use in the seventeenth century and displaced the original name (New Tower), despite the Assembly’s attempt in 1732 to insist on using the correct name (9). The tower is entered from the spur wall (CHER 12000/2) by a wide pointed arch with chamfered jambs, opening onto a small vestibule. At the far end, steps lead down to an octagonal chamber. Each wall has high, wide and deep recesses with depressed arches with chamfered glazed openings. The octagonal vault has a simple keel-moulded ribs springing directly from the angles of the wall. On the north side of vestibule is a small latrine enclosed in the junction of the tower and the wall. Stairs lead through thickness of the wall, lit by two loops to the upper floor. This is also octagonal, with moulded ribs springing from the angles of the wall. Embrasures once functioned as arrow-loops, but are now blocked off. The opening to the north-east is driven through the wall (CHER 12000/2/1). This entryway may be recent or may have been cut to assist in handling ships tied to rings on the Water Tower in the past. In the west wall is a fireplace. The wooden roof is based on corbels at the angles, and arched braces support the tie-beams and rafters, diating from a turned king post. Steps lead up from the roof to a fighting platform that overlooks the entrance (6). The rest of the parapet is crenellated, with two cross loops (1, 2). Please see the linked listed building record for additional structural detail.

<1> Renn, DF, 1958, The Water Tower at Chester, Renn D F 1958 45/56-60 (Article in Journal). SCH5753.

<2> Pevsner N & Hubbard E, 1971, The Buildings of England: Cheshire, /155-156 (Book). SCH3078.

<3> Morris, Rupert H (Rev.), 1894, Chester in the Plantagenet & Tudor Reigns, /244-245 (Book). SCH946.

<4> Harris, B.E., 1979, Bartholomew City Guides - Chester, /94-95 (Book). SCH394.

<6> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 470119 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

<7> Donald Insall Associates, Chester City Walls Conservation Management Plan, R3251 (Client Report). SCH6603.

<8> multiple authors, 1983, Excavation Reports and Sites Observed (Article in Journal). SCH5810.

<9> Lewis C.P & Thacker A.T. (eds), 2005, Victoria County History - A History of the County of Chester: Volume Vii, The City of Chester - The City of Chester, Culture, Buildings, Institutions, p222 (Book). SCH6522.

<10> Ward, S. W., 1986, Recent work on the medieval wall of Chester (Article in Journal). SCH5945.