Fascinating Victorian Topics/21st century Victorian Businesses

Water Tower Update December 2008
by David Forster

“Well,  I soldier on converting this amazing building.  The BBC film crew have been and gone and much blood sweat and the occasional tear have been in evidence. The main part of the tower is nearly complete and with planning permission for a second half size tower being granted. Glyn the carpenter extraordinaire almost finished the kitchen and his talent for carpentry is fantastic; however his personal life is much more of a mess and with a healthy appetite for Carlsberg Special Brews, I had to ask him to move on after he drunkenly swore at my wife, Jenny one afternoon after she asked for a progress report on the kitchen! After he had gone I had to lift up some floor boards to install some cables and pulled out 368 empty CSB cans which caused slight embarrassment when taken to our local recycler. The guy there recognized me from the TV series and commented that sympathized that any project of such undertaking would turn anyone to drink! Anyway, to cap it all, when I returned to the tower,  I started to clear out the pantry cupboard of bits of wood and various items which Glyn had stacked away over six months, and as I moved the wood I knocked over two one gallon containers of what I thought was turps without the lids on.  However, on closer inspection of each container a neat two inch hole had been cut into the top. It was only when I smelt the empty containers that I realised that they had been used as storage for the by-product of Special Brew!! The liquid had now poured through the floor boards and was dripping through the ceiling below, so I had to take part of the ceiling down and thoroughly disinfect;   it took two months to get the stink out!   I was so wild that someone with such a talent and whose great uncle was the famous Frank Whittle the jet engine inventor, could do something like this.

Another set to with Broadland District Council over the balcony meant I had to cut back the steelwork by 10 inches as they were not happy with the way it looked. There have been so many instances over the last two years that frankly can all be attributed to bureaucratic jealousy. Anything to put an obstacle in my path !  Coming across someone who owns a magnificent Victorian water tower seems to bring out the worst in a small minority of people especially in English culture these days.

 In April I started on the second build, sinking the foundations and excavating four metres under the tower to underpin the main structure.  This required specialist equipment and a month of hard work with 26 metres of reinforced concrete to allow me to have an underground workshop. Although this in itself was completed successfully, the groundwork contractors were rather ‘gung-ho' and as I had taken a short break away, during which unbeknown to me the contractor had deposited 150 tons of excavated soil onto the forest land which I do not own.

Unintentionally it appears that I have mistakenly trespassed into the wood by 2.3 metres as the land registry had never recorded an accurate boundary line, the tower being an industrial building in the middle of the wood. Although I had stuck to the 0.068 acre stated, in other words the boundary is not symmetrical to the tower. So this has to now be sorted out with the owners of the forest.

Jenny my wife,  wonderfully is still there and she is now writing a book about The MAN who wanted to LIVE IN A WATER TOWER which should make interesting reading. On the positive side we managed to hoist up a baby grand piano into the tank room, two bedrooms are finished both with en suite bathrooms and the kitchen is finished, just awaiting me to install a tiny walk-in chill room. Finances are low now and my small inheritance from my dear parents has been blown on the tower,  and the last bit of savings looks likely to be going to pacify the hurt feelings of the forest syndicate owners,  but I know my parents would approve and be proud of what I have achieved given the present economic climate. The BBC film crew are coming back next May to record a third series on the second build and to find out about any setbacks. That should prove interesting when all is revealed and its beamed around the world via the documentary ! 

It only remains to thank everyone out there around the world for your continued interest, your emails and good wishes, wonderful invitations to visit you and interesting suggestions --  and for me to wish you all well for 2009. “

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