Wartime watertank that moved to the Beacon
AS the construction of timber hutments expanded across Cannock Chase from 1915 onwards, Northern Command, under which the area had been granted permission by Lord Anson at Shugborough Hall, realised that a complex sewer and water supply would be required.
Water was initially provided for the troops at the nearby Rugeley Camp by South Staffordshire Water Authority, although as demand grew two large water tanks were constructed. Brocton from its inception needed to come up with an alternative water source for the men and the hundreds of horses used for transport.
Such was the demand for water that eventually bore holes were drilled into the water table near to the Brocton water tower – at Moors Gorse and Brindley Bank Pumping Stations.
Water was initially pumped up from Sherbrooke Valley through 4,115 yards of nine-inch mains piping to the water tower; the remains of that pumping station and concrete reservoir still exist in Sherbrooke Valley. The four-chimneyed power station near to the water tower provided the camp with electricity and also pumped the water up from Sherbrooke Valley.
Steel
The water towers at Brocton and Rugeley Camps at Cannock Chase Reserve Centre were constructed out of sectional pressed steel, rather than cast iron, manufactured by
Thomas Piggott Ltd at its Atlas Works, in Spring Hill, Birmingham. Each tank could hold up to 50,000 gallons of water. The dimensions were 50 feet by 20 feet by 8 feet (depth), and consisted of 137 sections on 28 steel joists.
Each tower cost £457 (about £48,000 today). The corrugated, curved roof covers on the Rugeley tanks cost £330 (about £37,000 today) and incorporated ventilators and manholes for access. A smaller water tank was situated at the 600-bed hospital at Brindley. The construction work was carried out by George
Lowe of Kidderminster. After the Great War, the two steel tanks from
Rugeley Camp were purchased from the Disposal Board of the War Department. The original installer, Thomas Piggott Ltd, was awarded the contract to dismantle the tanks and towers and reerect them at Sedgley Beacon, with the height increased by twenty feet. The cost of the work amounted to £1,145 (over £100,000 today).
Dismantled
The Sedgley tanks provided water for the town for over half a century and were finally dismantled in March 1974.
As for the concrete base for the Brocton water tower, it was deemed not cost effective for it to be removed and gradually
Mother Nature began to encroach on the area.
Then finally, after two acts of vandalsim, a glacial boulder found in a nearby quarry was permanently placed in the centre of the former stanchion blocks of the water tanks, where it remains today.