Adisham Water Tower
Adisham Water Tower is a Grade II listed building located in the parish of Adisham, Kent. The structure was built in 1903 in an Edwardian Italianate Revival style for the Margate Corporation District Waterworks. It is a rectangular tower built in red brick and terracotta with a water tank made of iron. A range of architectural features are described in its site listing and include “pilasters with banded rustication, open arcading with round arches with stone keystones and terracotta decoration above with stone panel bearing date and name of waterworks. One arch to shorter sides, three to longer. Moulded stringcourse between stages. Upper stage is similar but without the rustication and has deep eaves cornice on brackets supporting walkway around panelled iron tank." The iron water tank is inscribed “Erected by Newton Chambers and Co, Thorncliffe Ironworks Sheffield 1903."
Literary heritage
The Water Tower is featured by writer and naturalist Jocelyn Brooke as a recurring figure in his series of semi-autobiographical novels known as The Orchid Trilogy. It is one of several landmarks that form part of Brooke's mythical portrayal of his relationship with the landscapes of East Kent, which extends from childhood experiences in the early twentieth century to later life after World War II.In The Orchid Trilogy
In the same book, Brooke describes the Water Tower's early appearance in detail:
Throughout A Mine of Serpents, Brooke recalls a series of memories and impressions of the Water Tower from different stages of his life and varying vantage points, which take on metaphorical significance.
As a child, Brooke's affection for the structure was "tempered by a certain awe, a sense of some unknown potency residing within that august form," which he compares to his feelings for his father. Brooke also remembers the sight of 'miners' who "clambered up the zig-zag iron ladder" and "clung like monkeys to the railing round the tank; some had mounted to the gallery itself."
In adulthood, Brooke describes seeing the Water Tower above distant woods from Three Barrows Down near Woolage Village: "Remote, mysterious, it flashed its sudden signal across the sunburned fields: but the message was one which I had never been, perhaps never should be, able to decode...".
After World War II, when the tower's tank had been painted black, Brooke recalls the view from Barham Downs: "the paint was beginning to wear off, and hadn't been renewed: the tank showed dimly above the wood, a smudge of whitish grey – a burnt-out firework...".
In the final passage of A Mine of Serpents, the reader is left with a view of The Watertower from Bekesbourne train station: