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Tower Cliveland Street

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Disko

New Member
Does anyone know the history/heritage/usage of the tower located behind Pinnacle Embroidery & Print Ltd which backs on to the canal on Cliveland Street?

Was it used to manufacture guns or something else?

Thanks in advance.
 
A shot tower is where lead shot was produced, a water tank at the base and a lead melting furnace at the top, molten lead poured from the top (through a copper sieve) forms into nice spherical shot when it hits the water.
I'm not sure if your above mentioned tower is a shot tower though.
 
Disko
I presume you mean the tower shown in the view below. Up till the mid 1880s the site seems to have been Cliveland Street flour mills (Robert Evans and Sons )., as shown on the map with the approximate position of the tower marked in red. I would suggest that the original use would have been for grain or flour storage. It does resemble similar structures still observable at flour mills.

map c 1889 showing approx position of tower on site of flour mill.jpgtower at site of cliveland st flour mill.jpg
 
Disko
We posted almost at the same time. You will see that it is the same flour mill, though in my earlier post I give some earlier history
 
Mike

Thanks for your replies, very interesting.

I don't suppose you would know the use of the building in the early 1900's at all?
 
The site seems to have had several uses. Judging from Kellys, in 1904 and 1910 it was used by Morland Bros, corn merchants (who could have used the tower/silo ). In 1913 it is occupied by the Bay & Co firelighter manufacturers, The Bay Iron & Steel Co and the Bay Mineral & Chemical Co
 
Mike

Thank you for your replies.

Would you happen to have any old photos of Cliveland Street or point me in the right direction to where I could find some?
 
Eric Gibson said:
A shot tower is where lead shot was produced, a water tank at the base and a lead melting furnace at the top, molten lead poured from the top (through a copper sieve) forms into nice spherical shot when it hits the water.
I'm not sure if your above mentioned tower is a shot tower though.
Click to expand...
I'm inclined to agree Eric. I've seen a shot tower in Chester and that is a stand-alone building.
 
If the Forum consensus thinks that the structure is not a shot tower :laughing: maybe the thread title should be simply Cliveland Street. I suggest it as it does help folks when doing a search.
 
There was one on the Festival of Britain site in 1951, which suffered the fate of large parts of Birmingham and was later demolished
Festival-of-Britain-.jpg
 
For those old enough to remember the Festival of Britain I guess the famous shot tower on the South Bank that would be the one that comes to mind when shot towers are mentioned..
 
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