Approaching the Shot Tower in Crane Park
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Approaching the Shot Tower in Crane Park by Marathon as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Approaching the Shot Tower in Crane Park
Image: © Marathon Taken: 28 Mar 2012
The Shot Tower, standing next to the River Crane, was built in 1823. Its main use was for the production of small lead shot. Molten lead would be poured through a copper sieve from the top of the tower, which at that time was hollow. As the lead fell it formed small round pellets which cooled and hardened as they hit water in a large tank at the bottom of the tower. From 1766 to 1926, the surrounding area was the home to the Hounslow Gunpowder Mills. There were over 55 explosions recorded during the history of the mills, many of them fatal. The Shot Tower and the adjoining Crane Park Island are now used for environmental education. The path here is part of the London LOOP which passes through a long section of Crane Park.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.443311
Longitude
-0.377045