This gives an idea of the inside of the tank now cleared of vegetation and the debris of collapsed railings and walkway with the various bars labelled. The size of the tank, 20 feet x 52 feet x 6 feet becomes clearer. The water froze during December making walking inside the tank hazardous. Advice from the people who nowadays make these tanks is that all of the braces can be safely removed. Its purpose was to assist with construction and to counter the pressure of water against the sides. We shall however preserve examples for posterity and shall probably leave the corner braces where they are.
Date not known but this is Settle Station with the water tank in the background, maybe then still in use. The lamp posts are, happily, there no more having been replaced by heritage lighting. The sight, sounds and smell of steam trains thundering through Settle can still be enjoyed.
The signature of Samuel Waite Johnson on the water tower plans dated 27 August 1874 (Courtesy of Network Rail). Johnson's locomotives hauled the early Anglo-Scottish expresses over the Settle-Carlisle line. Like me, Waite was an old boy of Leeds Grammar School.
A portrait of the tower possibly when still in use and before tree growth had been allowed to eclipse its 'greatness'.
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