Water Towers

[Chantal]

Nothing to do with gardening, but what the heck does a water tower do and how does it work?

[richard p]

basically its a water storage tank stuck up a pole used in flat country where there are no hills to stick a tank on. water is pumped up into it , its then available to flow by gravity to whatever taps are connected to it. they are used as are storage tanks/reservoirs on hilltops to give local buffer storage so that water can be supplied locally from the tank at a faster rate than than the supply could otherwise supply.

here we are some 20 miles from the nearest large open reservoir but there are 3 hilltop closed tanks within a 5 mile radius , the one that supplies us is only 10 foot or so higher than we are and there is a 4000 population town in between so our taps used to dribble on a summers evening, now we are on a pumped main its not so bad but the pressure still drops about 7pm when everyone waters their lawns

[Chantal]

Thank you. There are two near my home and I've always accepted they were "water towers" just never questioned what they did.

OK, next question. I used to live at Draycote Water resevevoir and there was a water tower in the NW corner which was actually IN the water. Any ideas why?

[alan refail]

Funny how big some things we take for granted can be I grew up with water towers around the landscape. Here in Wales, of course, we just use mountains to achieve the same effect.

Here's a bit more to add to richard's explanation:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A13346633

Draycote Water - was this what you meant?



(The Welsh spy in the sky strikes again )

It's a tower in the water, but not a water tower. It sits over the "plughole" of the reservoir and strains out the crud before it gets to your taps.
It does look rather similar to a water tower. Older reservoirs often have more elaborate straining towers, such as this one in Llyn Efyrnwy built to supply Liverpool:



Some history here of the flooding of the village:

http://history.powys.org.uk/school1/lla ... rnwy.shtml

Alan

[Chantal]

Thanks Alan

That does look like Draycote but not like the water tower; they must have changed it since I last saw it (I moved from there in 1987 and haven't sailed there since around 1992). It was all concrete, no metal at all.

I called it the water tower because that's what it was known as to everyone; including the guys from Rugby Joint Water Board and latterly from Severn Trent who worked there. A giant plughole then, that certainly conjours up some interesting thoughts.

Thanks again both of you.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Chantal, you say water towers have nothing to do with gardening, i must disagree, have you ever tried getting water out of a garden tap without them.
Sorry for that, but i just feel in one of my devilish moods.