Chester Shot Tower, also known as Boughton Shot Tower, is a grade-II*-listed

shot tower A shot tower is a tower designed for the production of small-diameter shot balls by free fall of molten lead, which is then caught in a water basin. The shot is primarily used for projectiles in shotguns, and for ballast, radiation shielding, ...

located at in the Boughton district of Chester, England. The tower stands beside the Shropshire Union Canal and forms part of the disused Chester Leadworks. Built by Walkers, Parker & Co. in 1799, the tower is the oldest of three remaining shot towers in the UK,Images of England: Chester Leadworks and Shot Tower
/ref>Images of England: Lead Shot Tower, Cheese Lane, Bristol
/ref> and probably the oldest such structure still standing in the world. The circular red-brick tower is 168 feet (41.2 m) tall and 30 feet (9.1 m) in diameter at the base tapering to 20 feet (6 m) at the top, with small arched windows. A lift shaft dating from 1971 was removed in 2020; the interior retains a spiral staircase and melting pots.

Drop process of lead shot manufacture

The tower was one of the earliest built to manufacture

lead shot Shot is a collective term for small spheres or pellets, often made of lead. These were the original projectiles for shotguns and are still fired primarily from shotguns and less commonly from riot guns and grenade launchers, although shot shell ...

using the method pioneered in the 1780s by the

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

inventor William Watts. Molten lead was poured through a pierced copper plate or sieve at the top of the tower, with the droplets forming perfect spheres by surface tension during the fall; the spherical drops were then cooled in a vat of water at the base. Watts' process was less labour-intensive than the earlier method of casting shot in moulds. An early use of the tower was to make lead shot for muskets in the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. Although other methods were developed to manufacture shot during the 20th century, the Chester tower was still in use as late as 2001.B&W Picture Place

Lead industry in Chester

Lead is believed to have been exported at the port of Chester from lead mines in north-east

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

since the Roman period; later sites included

Minera Lead Mines The Minera Lead Mines were a mining operation and are now a country park and tourist centre in the village of Minera near Wrexham, in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. History The first written record of lead mining at Minera dates back to 1296 ...

.Chester City Council: Leadworks Lane Park
/ref> The construction of the

Chester Canal The Chester Canal was an English canal linking the south Cheshire town of Nantwich with the River Dee at Chester. It was intended to link Chester to Middlewich, with a branch to Nantwich, but the Trent and Mersey Canal were unco-operative abou ...

in the 1770s led to industrial development to the east of Chester, with the Walkers, Parker & Co. leadworks being established there in the late 18th century.'Late Georgian and Victorian Chester 1762–1914: The economy, 1762–1840: the demise of old Chester' in ''A History of the County of Chester'', Volume 5 (i): The City of Chester: General History and Topography (2003), pp. 172–77
/ref> The lead industry became one of Chester's major industries during the 19th century. An archaeological investigation carried out in 2001 found evidence of numerous demolished buildings contemporary with the shot tower of 1799; by 1812, the leadworks is known to have also included pipe-drawing machines and a rolling mill for producing lead sheet. When the partnership was dissolved in 1881, the lead business of Walkers, Parker & Co was listed for sale by auction in 1884 eventually converting to a limited company – the auction listing reveals that the entire Chester site covered 21 acres, however part of this was a detached mansion with pleasure gardens (5 acres), and two enclosure of land on the East side comprising 12 acres, leaving 4 acres for the works themselves. The catalogue of buildings and machinery reveals a wide variety of lead related products, paint, pipes, shot, sheet, casting and acid-house. Connections to the railways and the canal, and the associated railway trucks, canal barges, horses, etc. The leadworks closed in 2001, with Calder relocating to west Chester. Most of the remaining buildings of the leadworks, with the exception of the shot tower, were demolished around 2004 to make way for

urban regeneration Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of bligh ...

of the canal-side area. A small park by the canal on part of the former site was opened in May 2006. The park contains a sculpture in stainless steel and blue glass which commemorates Chester's lead industry; 'Spheres of Reflection' by Edd Snell was inspired by lead drops impacting on the surface of water.

Redevelopment plans

In April 2012 Broadway Malyan submitted plans for a £6.4 million redevelopment of the Shot Tower and associated leadworks to create 53 residential units as well as leisure and retail facilities. The controversy over the plans featured in the February 2013 BBC2 TV documentary ''The Planners''.

Other shot towers

The Chester Shot Tower is one of only three such structures to remain in the UK. Although shot towers were common during the 19th century across the country (two appear in the London skyline in John Constable's 1832 painting ''The Opening of Waterloo Bridge''), the Chester tower is the only surviving example that dates from the 18th or 19th century. The two shot towers that appear in Constable's painting were both owned by Walker, Parker & Co though neither were originally built for them. The old tower, was originally built in 1782/3 by Messrs Watts (who developed the process and built the first tower in

in 1782) and was 160 feet high, it suffered a serious fire in January 1826 though it was rebuilt the same year, and the newer Lambeth shot tower was also built in 1826 for Maltby and later taken over by Walker, Parker & Co. Another Walker, Parker & Co shot tower was the 157-foot tower at Elswick in

Newcastle-on-Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is als ...

which was completed in 1797, operated until 1951, and demolished c1968. Other early shot towers include the Jackson Ferry Shot Tower (c.1807), an example of a stone shot tower in

Wythe County, Virginia Wythe County is a county located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 28,290. Its county seat is Wytheville. History Wythe County was formed from Montgomery County in 1790. It wa ...

, and the brick Sparks Shot Tower in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, Pennsylvania (1808), both in the US. The other British examples still standing date from the 20th century. The Cheese Lane Shot Tower in Bristol, a reinforced concrete tower, was constructed in 1969 to replace Watts' original shot tower in Redcliffe, which was demolished in 1968. A military look-out post in Tynemouth dating from 1916 is also believed to have doubled as a shot tower. The so-called Crane Park Shot Tower at

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...

is no longer thought to have been used for this purpose.Images of England: Crane Park Brick Tower
/ref>

References

External links

Video footage of the shot tower
Buildings and structures in Chester Towers in Cheshire Grade II* listed buildings in Chester Towers completed in 1799 Shot towers