Description

HIGH STREET
740-1/56/822 (North side)
Stonehouse
Former Royal Naval Hospital
Water Tower
01/05/1975 (Formerly listed as:
HIGH STREET, Stonehouse, Royal
Naval Hospital: Water-Tower)

GV II*

Water tower. 1758-80. Plymouth limestone rubble with limestone quoins and other dressings. Octagonal plan. Moulded cornice under low-pitched roof with central octagonal turret leaded dome and ball finial. 3 storey elevations with blocked oculi to upper floors. Blocked round-arched doorway; another doorway lower down to left-hand return; ledged door.
INTERIOR: retains wooden frame for the water tanks.
HISTORY: probably originally with a lead cistern fed by chain pump, which pressurised a supply to water closets and throughout the wards. By 1800 an 'engine house' pumped to the reservoir. As such this is an early instance of a water-borne system of sanitation. and one which remains remarkably complete.
A significant part of the hospital plan, and of an outstanding and uniquely complete military hospital complex. The earliest known example of a water tower in Britain is the Water House of c1732 at Houghton Hall in Norfolk, the Plymouth example being an unusually early precursor of the water towers that appeared in increasing numbers for communal water supply of towns, hospitals etc from the mid C19. Previous to this date, there existed gravity-fed cisterns for communal water supply, such as the Lavatory Tower at Canterbury Cathedral, and there are two other examples of mid C17 date (at Abington Park, Northampton, and Dame Mary Bolle's Water Tower, Heath Common, West Yorkshire) which have retained evidence of water-powered pumping systems.
Morrison K: Royal Naval Hospital, Stonehouse: Cambridge: 1992: 100373).

Listing NGR: SX4676154819

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17554185

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy