Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Does anybody know whats inside the water tower ?

I won't say the obvious

If you did, you would be wrong...

Indeed the water tank and all the systems in there have been removed:P

A sinister super-villain stroking a cat, and a small army of expendable henchmen?

The Grecians Club

Vièr Bliu wrote:A sinister super-villain stroking a cat, and a small army of expendable henchmen?

If you have been properly and completely educated then you will know that with one exception all varieties of British spiders can and will bite. I have no doubt that they accompany the expendable henchmen in repelling invaders.

Vièr Bliu wrote:A sinister super-villain stroking a cat, and a small army of expendable henchmen?

Curse you 007. You have foiled my plans for the LAST time!

lol ok i quess no one has been inside so im thnking i wont get the real answer

Cazzro wrote: lol ok i quess no one has been inside so im thnking i wont get the real answer

That is austerulous; indeed it is dangerous and certainly will get you in a lot of trouble when you get out of the asylum

sejintenej wrote:

Cazzro wrote: lol ok i quess no one has been inside so im thnking i wont get the real answer

That is austerulous; indeed it is dangerous and certainly will get you in a lot of trouble when you get out of the asylum

STEADY DAVID - HE DOES COME FROM GODS LITTLE ACRE OF DORKING AS WELL AS ME !!

I think you'll find that the interior of the water tower is what Prof. Brain Cox would happily describe as a 'Black-Hole'.

Cazzro wrote:Does anybody know whats inside the water tower ?

During my time at C.H. this was the case!1936-43
The water tanks were bult into a steel scafold and the brick you see is just the housing.
The water came from a well under Sharpenhurst hill beyond the railway . A float actuated pointer and board
could be seen from the base of the water tower indicating the level in the well.
I seem to remember a small steam operated pump at the base of the water tower
was necessary to get the water up to the tanks when the well water level was too low
for gravity to get it up.
Apart from the school having it's own water supply , it generated its own electricity from
the steam plant near the original swimming pool.A great complex for the steam was used three times
It was used for cooking, heating the school and driving the dynamos...yes the school was all DC in my time.
I was able to use the dc mains to drive my first home built wireless set which when at home needed batteries.
I wonder if it is still under the emergency staircase in Peele A ?!?!?!?I never took it home when I left in Dec '43..
I know there was a very large bank of secondary cells forming a battery which I think was used when the
the steam engine was shut down at night.The engine was a compound type with pistons of different diameters.
the high pressure steam worked the small one and after the various uses and drop in pressure the larger
diameter pistons came into use ........

Cazzro wrote:Does anybody know whats inside the water tower ?

In our last weeks at CH (summer 83) we were taken up the Water Tower by the the Head, Derek Baker (possibly in a move to endear himself to us as a parting gesture...). As I seriously hate heights, it was with hindsight, a foolish thing for me to have done, but I remember being one of the few to remember a camera... pity I don't know where the photos are!

Anyway, the final part of the climb was a close to vertical ladder against a cold Steel (iron?) plate or box. While I can't be sure of this, I seem to recall that he said that the tanks couldn't be removed because of the way they'd been built into the fabric of the building...

I probably wasn't listening too closely because (a) that was my modus operandi at school, and (b) I wanted to get back on to terra firma (and that is possibly a bit of the Latin that I learned when I wasn't doing (a) !!!

Thepuss.

In the summer of 1961 (I think, but it was when John Daniel was SG, as he mentioned it in his oration), we were without hot water for about three weeks. Something makeshift was eventually rigged up, but it involved the Water Tower being draped with hoses and ladders and heaven knows what.

The water tanks in the tower got their water from an artesian well in SHARPENHURST hill.
The black and white water level board on the top of SHARPENHURST could be seen from the foot of the watertower. Should the level become too low then a steam driven pump at the base of the tower helped the water up into the tanks.
This system made the school have a reasonably constant pressure.
The school also had it's own electrical generating plant.
Three steam engines drove dynamos (DC geberating machines)
I have their history ....manufacturers order number6388 dated july 1901.
I THINK we also had accumulator s battery bank which received a charge from the dynamos
so that they could be shut down at night..the school lighting then came off the battery bank.
There were several sets of pipes to and from the kitchens and buildings to the boiler house . ..
where the original swimming pool was.