Water Tower, Bristol Street. Swindon, 14/06/16.

Tags

Bristol Street Swindon, British Listed Buildings, Grade II listed, Grade II listed building, Great Western Railways, Great Western Works, railways, Swindon, Water Tower

To quote from British Listed Buildings. co. uk (mainly because I wouldn’t know where to start describing this rather unusual Grade II listed structure):

“Water tower for Great Western Works. 1870. Cast iron. Round storey stanchions. 3 bays by 3 bays, in 4 lifts, all diagonally braced and with cast iron girders with interlaced circles at each lift. Central bay on plan with timber faced shaft. Grillage platform for water tanks at top, the tanks a replacement of 1979-80. The water tower forms an important landmark“.

Now it stand in the grounds of the University Technical College and is, in my opinion, the best preserved landmark relating to the former Great Western Works on Bristol Street.

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Photo Archive: The Library, Stoke-on-Trent, c.2007.

Tags

architecture, Charles Lynam, Colin Minton Campbell, English Heritage, Grade II listed building, library, Library and Shakespeare Institute Stoke-on-Trent, Minton, Shakespeare, Stoke-on-Trent, The Potteries, Victorian., Victoriana

English Heritage Building ID: 384432.

To quote from British Listed Buildings. co. uk, “Library, purpose-built as library and Shakespeare Institute in 1878. By Charles Lynam. Brick with stone dressings, enriched
with tiled panels and mosaics. 2-storeyed over a basement, 5 bays, stepped in plan. Red brick to basement, then white brick above, with rubbed red brick pilasters and architraves to windows in the advanced 3-bay section to the SW. 3 oculi, with tiled panels over, and mosaic depicting Shakespeare in the central panel“.

The Stoke-on-Trent: Breaking The Mould website informs me that the Minton family, Colin Minton Campbell to be exact, donated the site for the Library. His other achievements, listed on The Potteries. Org, he introduced the “acid gold process“, served as Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent between 1880 and 1883 and served as a Captain in the Stoke Rifle Volunteers, amongst many other things.

According to the BBC News website “Stoke-on-Trent’s former library has been sold for £128,000 – £40,000 more than expected“.

Nymph Wearing a Scarf, Leeds City Square, Leeds, 20/12/14.

Tags

Alfred Drury, architure, Colonel Thomas Walter Harding, Edward The Black Prince, English Heritage, Grade II listed building, Leeds, Leeds Artillery Volunteers, Leeds City Square, nymph, Queens Hotel, scarf, The Black Prince, Thomas Brock, Tower Works Holbeck

It was a bit chilly out.

Nice knitwear.

I always find that a walk around City Square settles my stomach after the train journey to Leeds and I never tire of the statues that stand in front of the Old Post Office, particularly the nymphs. I noticed that one of the nymph has acquired a scarf since my last visit to Leeds!

The nymphs are the work of Alfred Drury who, a certain on-line encyclopaedia informs me, did some work on the main entrance of the Victoria and Albert Museum, including a statue of the Prince Consort.

Amongst the nymphs stand beside an equine statue of Edward the Black Prince, which was covered in pigeons at the time. The statue was commissioned by Leeds based industrialist Colonel Thomas Walter Harding, who inherited a pin factory which became known as the Tower Works in Holbeck, because of its Italianate chimneys, which can still be seen on the skyline from the train (if you’re coming in from the direction of Wakefield Westgate, as I often do).

The Prince and the pigeons.

Thomas Walter Harding started to style himself The Colonel following his retirement from the local artillery volunteers after 33 years service, when the volunteers made him their Honorary Colonel. Leeds Art Gallery have a portrait of him by Hubert Von Herkomer, when The Colonel was Mayor of Leeds. The Black Prince was work of Thomas Brock, who would go on to create the Imperial Memorial to Queen Victoria, which stands outside Buckingham Palace.

Behind the Black Prince can be seen the Art Deco, Grade II listed, Queens Hotel (English Heritage Building I.D 465900), which opened in 1937. If you arrive in Leeds by train, it will be the first thing you see; you can’t miss it!