Colchester’s iconic water tower, affectionately called Jumbo by the locals, is the first landmark of Colchester one sees as your eastbound train pulls into Colchester proper. It has been a part of the Colchester skyline since it weas constructed in the 19th century to provide running water to the inhabitants of the city.
Since then, the invention of modern plumbing systems has left the tower without a purpose, and thus, without the care and attention it sorely needed. The tower fell into disrepair. For the past few decades, it’s only use was for training the local fire brigade.
Enter North Essex Heritage. Thanks to some funding from the National Lottery, this small heritage organisation has acquired the water tower, and is tirelessly working to restore Jumbo into something Colchester can, once again, be proud of.
After clearing the tower’s interior of rubbish, and ensuring it’s safe for people, North Essex Heritage figured they could make a little extra money for the conservation by offering tours, whilst they wait for funding to continue renovating the tower.
Little did they anticipate the sheer popularity of these tours. They initially offered a short, 4 weekend long run that sold out near instantly. We had to enter a waiting list, and then booked as soon as new dates were available. Even so, our tour was completely sold out, as were most of the other tours made available met the same fate. Even now, a year after the first tours were announced, the tours are sold out.
We arrived to the tower on a brisk January afternoon, having lunched in the city centre. We were greeted by an already fairly large group, and two female tour guides on the older side. The tour group was a medley of different ages, but we were confident we were, by far, the youngest there.
Following a quick safety brief, and the donning of some high visibility jackets, we used out youthful vigour to be the first to climb the hundred or so steps leading the first floor of the tower, the so-called engineering floor.
This is where the engineers would ensure all the machinery was running correctly. A few of these still lay on the corners of this floor, and are a fascintating insight into how the water tower worked. The tour guides explained the history of the tower, it’s role in Colchester, as well as what this floor was used for, before letting us explore it ourselves.
The machine themselves were cool to look at, but by far the best attraction up here was the opportunity to look through the windows to see Colcheter from up above. Somewhat morbidly, a few of the windows had scattered bones on the ledges, hunting trophies left by the falcons that roost in the tower in the spring.
Next we were taken up to the second floor, the immense water tank itself. It’s truly massive, and one can imagine the sheer volume of water used to supply Colchester in ages past. One can get narrow vistas of Colchester from a few tears in the walls of the water tower. There are also a few information boards telling more information about the tower.
The highlight of the tour, however, was the ascension to the 3rd floor up a wrought iron staircase (made over a hundred years ago by the same company that Tayla had once worked for; small world I guess) to a viewing terrace providing the best view of Colchester one can get. We stayed up there for a little while, chatting with the tour guide and picking out churches to visit.
After this, we slowly made our way down the tower and back onto solid Colchestrian ground. This was a fantastically unique opportunity to sample the city’s history and learn many new thing. North Essex Heritage has many plans for the tower – they want to add an accessible lift, as well as make it into a proper tourist attraction. They have many ideas, though no solid plans yet, ranging from a cafe to a wedding venue. Either way, we were glad to contribute to the maintenance and rejuvenation of this historic building.
We May Roam 