SNN111994 - Historic Building Recording: Water Tower, Orlingbury Road, Isham, Northants

In April 2019 an HE level 2 historic building survey was prepared for a disused water tower in Orlingbury Road, Isham, Northants, in advance of its conversion for residential use. Isham water tower was built for Wellingborough Rural District Council as part of a local water supply scheme for the village and parish of Isham, the whole scheme being completed in 1911. The tower is brick-built, square in plan and c.17 metres in height, with distinctive double-arched bays – three to a side – and other brick detailing. A 25,000-gallon iron tank inside the top of the tower was fed with water from a brick-lined well beneath the tower, by a wind engine mounted on the roof, driving a pump located in the well by means of a drive shaft passing down the centre of the structure. A supplementary oil engine and pump were located in the well house, a single-storey structure which projects from the north-east side of the tower. Water was fed to the village mains from the tower by gravity. The system worked well and largely without incident until the summer of 1944, when it failed for over three months during a drought. The supply eventually recovered, but as a precaution, an additional source of supply was sought. Initial attempts were made to augment the existing supply with a second well feeding into the tower: however, following objections from the County Medical Officer of Health, in 1947 the County Council decided instead to approve and fund connection of the Isham water main to the existing supply in neighbouring Orlingbury, which belonged to Wellingborough Urban District Council. After this was done, the Isham water tower was decommissioned, and has remained disused until the present day.