Water Tower in Newnham valley

Image: © Penny Mayes Taken: 12 May 2006

Standing NW of Faversham Road, the style of this building makes it look like a misplaced cinema. I believe it was built in 1936 and is associated with a nearby water board pumping station and may have been an experimental water-softening plant. 2017: I now find this is a listed building https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1391820 and was indeed built in the 1930s for Mid Kent Water as a water softening plant of a type known as a sludge blanket clarifier. It consists of two conical tanks placed either side of an ellipse-shaped central tower. It was abandoned during the Second World War, only a decade after its construction, and although it reopened in 1946, it soon closed again, due in part to high operational costs. The building was sold in 2002, and discussions took place about its conversion to domestic use. In 2003 the 20th Century Society did a case study: https://c20society.org.uk/casework/former-water-softening-plant/ It has since been converted to a six bedroom house - see 2011 photo http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2989872 and many more estate agent photos, including interior shots from 2013 http://www.wowhaus.co.uk/2013/10/28/on-the-market-1930s-grade-ii-listed-the-lime-works-six-bedroom-house-in-norton-kent/ The building featured on Channel 4’s Gadget Man.

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