| Description | Dame Mary Bolles Water Tower. 17th century water tower with remains of 19th century waterwheel housing.
'Water tower perhaps also used as gazebo. Early mid C17 restored c1985 at time of resurvey. Large well coursed gritstone, stone slate roof. 5 stage tower square on plan. Quoins. 1st and 2nd stages are stepped with chamfered band. 3rd and 4th stages have projecting band of square section. West face has plinth broken by Tudor arched doorway with composite jambs and chamfered surround. Right hand jamb has date '1685', the numerals of true C17 character. Rectangular ventilator to either side and above door in 2nd stage. 2 light double chamfered mullioned window set below eaves of pyramidal roof. East face (rear) has Tudor arched doorway with deep lintel and composite jambs to 2nd stage (rectangular openings above to each stage) and 2 light window under eaves. North and south faces each have a 2 light window to 2nd stage and under eaves.
Interior: partly excavated large cistern carved out of bed rock with large kerb stones round 2 sides, fed by spring in north east corner. Large spine beam with mortices for floor joists to 2nd stage with plastered walls above. Set beyond and below the west entrance at lower level and partially sunk into side of hill is remains of C19 cast iron water wheel with narrow overflow channel and segmental arched open roof above. This is approached down 2 flights of 9 stone steps with with dressed rubble walls to west side with quoins, the angle chamfered.
A unusual building associated with Heath Old Hall (demolished). From it a vista of the city of Wakefield may be obtained and it is likely it was a viewing tower. What use the water wheel was put to is uncertain. It may have driven the water in the cistern to a tank at the top and is thought to have served a nearby ironworks'.
(English Heritage listed building description. Date listed 27/08/1986. http://list.english heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1200499. Web site accessed 03/02/2014).
WYAAS archives holds a copy of Wakefield MDC (Planning/Conservation) records relating to the Dame Mary Bolles Water Tower. This includes a description and a photocopy of photographic prints. Probably from the late 1970s (Wakefield MDC. Undated).
Dame Mary Bolles Well 17th c. water/viewing tower with the remains of a water wheel housing (water wheel housing may be 19th century). Constructed to pump water from an adjacent spring to Heath Old Hall. Bears date of 1685, although list description gives date as early to mid 17th century. Is this a restoration date? Modern restoration by Manpower Services c.1985. Water tower is downhill from Heath Old Hall, water wheel is downhill from tower, and these are adjoined farther downhill to the west by two rectangular depressions which may represent the remains of fishponds also fed by the spring.
Restoration work in the 1980s exposed the remains of a composite (but primarily iron) undershot or low breast shot compass wheel within the water wheel chamber. This was in poor condition when found (although about two thirds of the rim survived, and sufficient of the buckets and arms to reconstruct the form). The wheel has since suffered very badly from vandalism, and little more than the hub and a few of the arms remain in 1997; it is clearly, however, an artefact of the 19th rather than the 17th century. The original mechanism of the water tower is unclear (Raper suggests the presence of a flop jack pump), but the area between the water wheel chamber and the tower, and the chamber and tower themselves would probably repay detailed analysis in spite of alterations effected during 1980s restoration (Raper, E. 1983 86). |