Restoration Man: Victorian Water Tower (Before and After) | History Documentary | Reel Truth History

all over the UK thousands of historic buildings life forgotten and neglected often tangled up with red tape or abandoned by owners who cannot afford the repairs some of these are in danger have been lost forever English heritage as buildings at risk register has over a thousand buildings about standing architectural interest that are literally falling down waiting for people like you to turn them into homes you sit there at home and you look at the TV think I could do that I dream about the house every night it definitely took a lot of blood sweat and tears to get the plan information in this series you're going to see people breathing new life into derelict water towers engine houses windmills and churches as an architect I'm passionate about our architectural heritage and I want to help these restoration warriors on their journeys as they reclaim recycle and make these buildings useful again every structure has its own unique history which I know will help guide these intrepid restorers the house of their roof we just knew it was a building that just deserved to be saved but their labors of love can come at a huge personal price or financially if something goes wrong we lose everything and emotionally he's always working a night in a weekend is always working he lives his life stressed when you take on a listed building you're taking on a responsibility you become its Guardian to pass on to future generations we'll be able to stand back and point to the grandkids and say bored sweat and tears we converted into the house I hope I can bring my vision and expertise to help these restoration warriors realize their dreams I'm in the ancient town of Congleton set in the Cheshire countryside since the Middle Ages this market town has been renowned as a producer of lace and leather goods but to make them Congleton needed one very important thing water and it's the very reason this impressive structure was built constructed in 1881 this Victorian water tower known as the forge lane water tower was at the time state-of-the-art engineering delivering clean safe and fresh water to the town but since larger reservoirs have been built the tower has played a minor role today 30-year old architect Andy Critchlow and his partner and a Ferguson who works in IT have a vision to restore this abandoned Victorian Monument into their dream home we did come and see it once in the snow we hopped over the fence and just came up and have a look and I'd is a really lovely building went straight to the auction still no real idea whether we're going to buy it and then probably half an hour later walked out phone Nanna and son we've just bought a water tower yeah I was taken aback just concerned about how he was gonna fit this all in whether it is gonna actually break him realization that we would selling our house and moving in with Andy's parents because I've got this obstacle in front of me I'll give like a hundred percent to it until it's building pretty much every day coming from work we see it on the way into Congleton and just dream of having a GMT on the deck to me you know it's a specialist Palace on dia Nana bought this building along with one acre of land for a hundred thousand pounds at auction after selling their old house they have a budget of 200 thousand pounds to transform this empty shell on their restoration journey I'm going to help advise and encourage them to realize their ambitions so I'm on my way to see what are supposed to be the most beautiful Victorian water tower the Victorians always gave utilitarian structures like this a sense of grandeur as well as detail often our great industrial heritage is neglected as these buildings seem unsuitable to turn into homes as an architect I love challenges like this earth that's the styles this is more like the kind of great-granddad and that's the grandson have you ever done anything like this before [Laughter] this grid - listed building is an iconic testament to Victorian engineering 39 feet in diameter it comes with a footprint around 1,200 square feet - the light is just being an empty volume it's really a blank canvas Andy's innovative design is to turn the tower into a home split into four levels the entrance level is for storage as they won't have an attic the raised ground floor level will have two bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms plus a laundry room the first floor will be the living room with an open-plan kitchen dining area the second floor will have a further two bedrooms plus a master bedroom with an ensuite a spiral staircase will lead up to a new roof top glass extension with its own roof terrace with the new garage alongside the tower the overall design will be an impressive six thousand square feet set in an acre of land because and Ian Anna have thrown everything into this project they have nowhere to live so they've moved in without his parents I would have not taken anything on if we haven't got the luxury of something like this I wouldn't before to start a caravan to put it on site because we cannot romantically said oh we could live in a caravan but it would be absolutely hell I've got no doubt about it you wouldn't entertain it so you know we'll about five six miles away it's about 15 minutes apps the idea you know at the end of a day when you're absolutely knackered you can crawl home it's warm you can have someone mom's cooking if that's what you really want you can get a shower and go to bed so it's ideal the tower already had planning permission for conversion when they bought it but being an architect and B has improved the design but cylindrical buildings have some unique design opportunities and I feel I can offer a different view than some areas he might have overlooked the level that worries me to be honest math it's just the first floor level yeah it really is you're kind of prime space you know when you think you're gonna have people round yes they'll want to go to the observation deck but they want to be in your living room and your dining room in your kitchen coming off your drink and I'm just thinking on key areas like your living dining room kitchen if the wall stopped short and there was a piece of glass there forming the junction between that new bit of third partition and the old structure means you're gonna be looking through it and beyond and having a greater sense of space yeah a good idea the new in the old cunny you get the sense of the circle past you view points they take you around the bell like that but I just think this is a building where that the detail is going to make all the difference it's good to get a second because the last thing we want to do is miss the opportunity opportunity we want to keep the integrity and make the most of everything we've got plot from all that that's fine yeah good I'll give yourself maybe a B b-plus even goes for us in an a-minus thanks very much hopefully I don't come over too protective about it and genuinely with the comments that George is made I think they're all positive for everything I've just sent down quite difficult with criticism boy you know when the good comments the fair you've got to take them on board this is without a doubt one of the most fascinating industrial buildings I've ever come across and I'm fascinated by Andy as well to be honest he's kind of implied that he's not that close to this build that he's not going to get drawn into that issue of the architect being obsessed with his own home but I don't believe him for a single second this guy has given everything for the last nine months just to get the building in the state just at the very beginning both him and Anna very long a very tough journey in 2009 Andi Critchlow and Anna Ferguson bought this derelict 19th century water tower in congleton Cheshire at auction for a hundred thousand pounds they want to convert it into their dream home I am absolutely buzzing about this building it's just incredible I don't think I've seen an industrial building of this scale and size in such good quality it's just phenomenal I mean the diameter of the tower itself is so unique it's so rare to get your hands on a building of this style and of this bill essential huge central column that you've got soaring up to the top supporting all of those Steel's that would have supported the old water tank it's just an incredible structural feat for this to have any opportunity have been turned into a home is just it's just an always a dream after nine months hard slog of hacking and cutting away the building of unwanted scrap iron they have one more piece to go before they can start the construction so this building is 130 years old and there's been nine months of super hard work the bite Andy and all the guys to get all the cast iron out and this big day yeah the last piece gone with the tower encased in scaffolding today is the start of a major operation to remove the roof but with winter closing in there's not a moment to lose this is a big kind of momentous occasion and peace in the whole build the roof is literally to channel as fast as our holes refer to what they're going to do is are going to cut some holes in the center today strap that up to the crane and then lift it off in one so it look like a flying saucers appeared in Congleton the roof has to come off because Andy has to cut out six huge iron beams but supported the old water tank they're so big and dangerous they've got to come out through the roof and in this dad cliff watch nervously I'm looking forward she cut off in one piece perfectly and then go back on and then come off and go back on for the next two weeks they've taken attention on the change at the moment so he it's just a case of easiness gentlest he counted clear the balls [Music] thinkety-think is it another tick in the box the next task is each of these long beams of command two sections they'll let me lift it out of the roof and strain to a skip ready to go for scrap it does look like a bit of an alien object in the landscape now it's only gonna be landed there for a few weeks it will be going back on and every day to protect it from the elements for the next couple of weeks we're all really happy with how today's gone but we can't forget that we've just removed the roof off a building at the start of winter and there's lots of work ahead and Ian Anna's tower is a really unusual project and they know very little about its history so I'm determined to help them as much as possible and to find out why was built in the first place by the early 1800s Congleton population had reached nearly 4,000 and everyone in the town is very much used to having drink and water from the established Wells and from the river but very lot of thought had been given to the disposal of human waste and sewage the connivance problems were small bear compared to the rest of the country as the Industrial Revolution grew a vast number of workers were lured into already overcrowded cities more and more people were being crammed in the tenement buildings and slums as their numbers increased so did the sewage problem and when that problem came a frightening amount of sickness and disease but people just accepted it in the winter you got colds and in the summer you got something called English cholera but because very few people died of it no one really cared however in October 1831 the Sunderland docks are about to be enveloped by one of the most terrifying pandemics from overseas Asia attic cholera but swept in from the east I meet an local historian Stuart Miller so Stuart why ever had to come to my hometown of Sunland to find out about cholera well because Sunderland was the first place in England to have an effect have an attack of this new devastating disease which had spread all the way from northern India across Asia through Russia and then eventually reached the baltic and in the Baltic were vessels waiting to come back to sundel sundered was a cholera outbreak waiting to happen in the 1830s it was packed overflowing filthy devastated by the effects of crowding this densely overcrowded town was the perfect breeding ground for the new strain of Cholera brought into the docks by sailors so true what would the sailors have seen when they arrived in the port of Sunderland back then well their first vision of course would have been a crowded river because the birthing plan suggests that the ships were berthing maybe sometimes seven or eight abreast how would it be transferred from one person to the next I mean we know what the plague it was it was rats but how did it happen with this form of cholera well to put it bluntly I suppose it's what you call shitty hands that's the problem when you think about people living in packed accommodation here with very poor sanitary facilities it was almost impossible to keep yourself clean under normal conditions and when you've got someone who has cholera already living in close proximity to you then it's going to be almost impossible to keep yourself apart from this and what was it like for someone who actually caught this vicious deadly cholera your body would darken eventually I think that you would die of ice was what you would call a seizure or a stroke eventually the body just collapse there's a lovely picture of a girl called Isabella hazard who's known as the blue girl and she was one of the very early victims of cholera and she's called the blue girl because there's a drawing of her in The Lancet medical journal and her face is very darkened because that was one of the effects of the color of the blue girl Asiatic cholera is spread like wildfire claiming 130,000 lives in Britain by the end of the 19th century this force the government has sit up and rethink their approach to sanitation in the nation's filthy cities back in Congleton to temporarily protect the building from bad weather but suddenly the old roof needs to be lifted on and off daily [Music] while Andy's had his day job dad cliff has overseen the project Andy returns at night to carry on the work it's a major stress but dad thinks he can handle it he's always been the same even a schoolboy it's never been any different he's one of those men that I think actually if he's got 10 minutes to spare he'll be bored he needs to be occupied all the time no Molly's got one now the turkey party but today Andy is behind schedule it's getting late and it's got to prepare the walls of the tower for the new steel beams being fitted in the morning it's a long and laborious process and tempers are beginning to fray between father and son [Music] say it properly bastard blocks finally and amidst dad have finished in these restoration warriors can go home in peace although it's been a long and frustrating day another critical deadline has been met but soon there's another setback it appears that kids have broken into the site and vandalized the crane this vandalism is gonna cost Andy time and money he can ill afford to hire the crane cost 450 pounds a day add to that the estimated cost of a thousand pound for repairs annoyingly this was to be the last day of the crane was needed on site without it the roof can't go back on in one of the worst snowfalls for years the interior of Andy's tower is now left unprotected as the crane has taken away to be repaired all that can be done is for Andy and a 62 year old father to hold ropes and canvas to the top of the tower to try and erect a temporary cover come on ropes just a few days before Christmas and Ian Anna's future home is snored in there is mindless that people don't appreciate you know a stone throw through a window just what havoc it can cause [Music] in December 2009 antique rich law and Anna Ferguson bought this derelict 19th century water tower in Congleton Cheshire for a hundred thousand pounds at auction with the remaining two hundred thousand pounds from the sale of their previous house they hope to turn this Victorian edifice into their dream home despite the severe weather and vandalism on site the critical job of removing the all die and girders and replacing them with new steel ones is on track this is how all the Steel's are turning up but we're dropping in through this massive crane right through the top of the old roof all that still work will support the new timber floors that will be installed but it's really a case of adapting the Builder that make that still work fit you stole a brain when we think of most restoration projects it's it's kind of tinkering you know brushing away the flecks of paint and being very gentle with the old building because you don't want to damage out of course any disruption but this building it's about it's like a celebration of this area's hardcore brutal industries when I first met Andean Ana I suggested a change to their kitchen design which included a glass panel that could be used on all floors if the wall stopped short and there was a piece of glass there forming the junction between that new bit of third partition and the old structure means you're gonna be looking through it and beyond and having a greater sense of space I'm interested to see if he took my ideas on board immediately I went back to the to the plans and the drawing just started to incorporate them and in fact we're standing in perfect position for the glass slot idea you can see that I think the head of this stair here would be one of those partition walls I think so yeah I think we'll go ahead with that and certainly it's built into the schedule of works now if we can't afford it in the end it gets boarded over glass goes in for all the suggestions yes with the tower now beginning to take shape and look like a home I've decided to discover more about its history now despite the outbreak of cholera and the death of over a hundred and thirty thousand people very low was actually done to clean up Britain sanitary conditions and places like Congleton still remained largely medieval in 1839 in the UK for every one person that died of either old age of violence aid people died of disease but there were a few Victorian reformers who at last managed to me at the connection between diseases like cholera and water Edwin Chadwick managed to persuade Parliament but better hygiene would not only prevent disease but also lead to a healthy workforce influenced by this arguments in 1848 an Act was passed by Parliament I'm going deep into the archives of the Palace of Westminster to discover more [Music] what's incredible about this room you've got every single act ever created from 1497 Oh beautifully and written like this one on sheepskin as soon as you open the act the first words that you see in Norman French at the very top is Lauren the world it's basically translate as the Queen wishes it but an act passed for the provision of improving sanitary of towers and the populous places in England and Wales and it's expected that the supply of water to all towers and places improve the quality of sewage drainage free cleansing and paving I'm in this room with this piece of history the first Public Health Act but defines the improved sanitary conditions of England and Wales in the early 1850s there was another cholera outbreak in 1858 with the excrement of nearly two and a half million Londoners been emptied from cesspits directly into the Thames it was getting clogged up and the stench was unbearable known as the great stink Parliament's windows were covered in drapes soaked in chloride and lime to keep the fumes out the government even considered leaving the Capitol things had to change and it took a fantastic feat of Victorian engineering to come up with the solution that still exists today the London sewers to be done London's first chief engineer Joseph fantastic underground sewage system for the city it stretches for over 1,000 miles and had a radical impact on all the inhabitants of London what was fantastic was a public sewer this would have incredible ramifications that would be felt in every single town and city across the UK including Congleton in 1875 a new Public Health Act was drawn up and this time it had teeth so we go from all of these beautifully handwritten acts it's all of these which are created from 1850 whether were all print it and then here we've got an incredibly important documentary privies and water closets I mean you cannot get a more important thing when it comes to public sanitation than the everyday household loo and it says here that shall not be lawful newly direct any house or to build any house pulled down or below the ground floor without the sufficient water closet or earth closet all privy and an ash pit furnished with proper doors and coverings and rightly so I think any person who causes any house to be erected or rebuilt in contravention of this enactment should be liable to a penalty not exceeding 20 pounds if you like these forced local authorities to up their game they happen have health inspectors medical inspectors and they were pushed and pushed to provide the very best of sanitation hygiene sewage systems and water there's no doubt about it this document is very much the Magna Carta of sanitary legislation only six years after this act was put in place the Congleton water tower was built if it wasn't for the act the building would never have existed designed by engineer William black Shaw at a cost of 13,000 pounds construction started on the tower in 1881 and 130 years later the tower has been brought back to life again so the last time I was here it was about 3 foot of snow and pretty miserable conditions on site for everybody but today beautiful blue sky fantastic spring day and we've got the boys toys out the cranes back so I wasn't looking we've pretty much cleaned out ready for the fits out to start soon as we win the water tight and as I'm it nearly stopped it every time she comes up and down wow that's like three years of that yeah isn't there to be conquered this space is absolutely brilliant this is the final look down is one hell of a drop but it's unbelievable you can't get more dramatic than that it was worth sacrificing the floor area for wasn't absolutely absolutely really is it as good as I imagined it's a bit misty today because of the Sun bloody brilliant [Music] bloody hell there it is first bit of glass yeah I find it an absolute pleasure and a privilege to see such a historic piece of architecture being beautifully transformed into something fresh new ecological innovative you can't get more environmental than recycling in or building in the restoration of this tower and these energy and single-mindedness has been the driving factor it can appear at times that this passion excludes everyone else even Anna I'm trying to get involved as they come together the way you imagined it would be I don't really know what I imagined it so it is really I'm this vision you're looking for to live another I can't quite picture that yet doesn't really feel like a home yet I always know from him it's about the kind of bigger vision you know the drama of the staircase and the practical functional side of getting this building together because in some respects he's kind of he's not just architect but he's project manager isn't it yeah oh he's involved in every little detail everything everything yeah he seems really tough but it seems really driven but he also seems really stubborn not hard to please I want things I've done his way that's what he's telling me but it seems so that it seems to me like he's so controlled and driven but anything less than perfect would be a sign of weakness yeah I think you're probably right [Music] now that the engineer inside of converting this industrial building is complete I think it's time for Anna to get involved in the interior design and fit out are you gonna let me yeah good give me a rest we could stop we say control control group yeah whatever having is gonna be a nice family home hopefully definitely big enough every summer we could settle down so far this building projects gone incredibly well and that's down to one person Andy he saw well-organized and driven it's exactly what this restoration project needs but as it gets to the end of the project in the detail of kitchens bathrooms fixtures and fittings I think Andy might struggle to make this project the success I think it needs to bring Anna into the fold in December 2009 and eek Richland and a Ferguson bought this derelict 19th century water tower in Congleton Cheshire for a hundred thousand pounds despite the terrible weather and damage caused by vandals the major heavy work was completed it's time for the interior fit out we're on with partitions this the first floor and this is pretty much now and the guys working but Andy is a man who has driven to the exclusion of almost everyone around him and that sometimes includes detached house to give Ana some inspiration I've taken her to a completed Tower restoration their super giant sized watertown I think it's quite good to see somewhere like this where you've got so many rooms split on so many different levels how they're organized and although yeah functional practical things that you've got to think about to make it work what's quite interesting for very domestic point is they've got this full-on vacuum air-conditioning system but if you want to vacuum the entire property you can just plug in any point in the house so you don't have to lump a big Hoover everywhere the Hoover over the floor you just plug in a tube and it automatically kicks in Hoover all up and then the dust comes all the way down to the ground floor well that's pretty cool that's pretty that's good I was already thinking about where I'm gonna get the hoop it's on this level kitchen the other thing is in the comm system alright cuz obviously if they're on top floor and someone's down here pick that up push the button have a chat with someone under the floor have you got that don't think we're going for that I'm just going for the old-fashioned saying I'm this quite good at what they've done quite cleverly in this place because the staircase is off to one side there are remaining stations all storage hmm this is the absolute right time now if Andy hasn't done it already is to think about integrated storage you're looking at me as if to say he hasn't really done that see what architects - oh and I'm as bad as the next one they get super excited about got a staircase and look at a light and look at the space and look how beautiful that is and I'm slightly worried that Angela gets swords orb did not side at the building project management he's gonna think about the practical simple but efficient things that you need to do right for to work things like laundry you don't wanna be up and down the stairs all the time for laundry baskets from bedrooms down their utility spaces so you could even think about putting in a laundry chute which I buddy's forgotten about alright yep you can literally just lift up a Hutchins each level on bedroom level he could just took it all down when you're upstairs and he shouts at you from the girl for you can just took that you know yeah it's being too much of an architect he's probably forgotten about all these very sensible things that you should take into account and a family [ __ ] know the architecture make the spaces look beautiful I think he's nailed that yeah use the room so those kind of things are definitely important taking shopping up and down sorting out the laundry things like that Hoover in the cleaning all these things that I'll be doing Oh if undies promise that you're gonna be in that house for the next ten years well things are gonna change only definitely a family home it's big enough kids yeah it's in my mind it's something I'm thinking about you can think of it like a bachelor pad it's got a big problem and that's what Andy and Anna's tower is now close to becoming ironically it was congleton 's population increase and demand for homes in the mid 19th century that created the need for our tower in the first place [Music] my journey into the story of this tower has taken me from the Sunderland cholera epidemic to the great thing of London and the parliamentary archives without these extraordinary Victorian public health acts which would help to protect congleton population of nearly 11,000 our tower would never have been built in 1881 the tower worked on the most simple principle you could ever possibly imagine that would collect nearly 50,000 gallons of water from down in the town from the existing wells and streams and rivers and that would be pumped all the way up hill to the high ground up to its 50,000 gallon tank and then the water come all the way back down again under great pressure to supply the town and the population allows this water tower was in effect one big giant toilet system the problem was this building only really had a lifespan at around 50 years a new reservoir was built a new tower was built and unfortunately our beautiful Victorian Tower became redundant what I've always liked about this restoration project is it's daunting scale and ambition it's taken someone with determination like Andy to face this enormous challenge of converting it into a home sadly many of our great old industrial buildings are left abandoned and alert because of their sheer size or they are simply unsuitable for residential conversion but after only a few years of hard graft and dedication Andy and Anna have finally finished this restoration and I'm dying to say it this is unbelievable it just works really well isn't that the kind of the modern white walls being slaughtered in against the curves old brickwork old crashed you it's jaw-dropping to think that when I first came here a year ago this was just an empty shell today as we go up the stairs I'm struck by the fact that when you convert a round tall building it's always an architectural struggle not to lose too much of the space with the new staircase so I'm really intrigued to see how Andy has made use of the space on the first floor for the spare bedrooms the litmus test of whether a building's finishes whether the spare room is done moving for Maine's Barrymore number two looks just the same on the other side I think the shape of the rooms are just spot-on because you've got all of this there's perfectly planned a bedroom and then tucked in here which is your kind of big service call you've got all the bathrooms and says I'm still surprised there's no left so what you mean about the stairs though as we climb to the second floor I love how the exposed brickwork meets the clean lines of the steel staircase and the new white walls amazing this is great follow the curve and it's all around it actually works really well doesn't it cuz you've got a little work area over that desk computer right next to the window seating area dining around that just in this area yeah two three four five six given glimpses and all of those six different directions this is lovely really really nice it just flows beautifully with you know you come in and you've got entrance area seating area dining table and keep going around the curve I feel this kitchen really works and I love the way that anna has put all the work surfaces along the curved wall as it embraces the space and celebrates the windows of the building I mean that's not a bad place to wash dishes standing there watching a dish beautifully in the house surprisingly as we climb to the third floor I notice Anna didn't go for some of the practical things I thought they'd need which I showed her at the complete that's how we visited so there's no intercom fancy vacuuming system or even a dumbwaiter Carlin master bedroom yes it's great it's all space sim show kazoo the rooms downstairs logical rooms in the same place strange works by but that repetition kind of just made sense it's logical it keeps the cost down with the staircase taken out a third of the floor plan and he's been left with similar spaces on each floor and I love the way he's been forced to work with a cylindrical fabric of the building [Music] what was once just a conical roof is now a fantastic space that extraordinary panoramic Vista can be enjoyed for the first time as an architect for me this is what true restoration is about adding 21st century materials which respect and celebrate the old that is just magical you can see for miles I mean that astir just Eiffel last fall yeah you wanna jump up and down it's amazing see my kids would just be lying on that yeah it's fun good I'm glad you did that it stops this level from being like kind of self-contained units I can put nice light still got visual lay down stairs which makes this space even more special very unusual choice of Florida have to say what surprised by that yeah not my choice what the boss yeah shows us this is Ana's beaches you've referred to a couple times first up outside what's the best thought to get out of this one it's amazing isn't it yeah it's just [Music] it's amazing it's brilliant when this building was built with its industrial use purely functional really just howdy would provide water for all the people in this area healthy drinking water for people in this area the mill to house I was always struck by the beauty of this Victorian structure the extraordinary interior space and the brutality of the building as custodians of the tower I want Andy and Anna to remember that industrial heritage the one day pass it on to future generations it's a little present for you the history of the building it's in a huge amount of research about the background to this and why was built and who built it that's all here for you but memento feed have connects the front door or saloon Blackshear the severe and they're all about cholera the disease that really changed everything and then the crisis in the UK at Sunderland the lid coming off big data that's an awesome shot not seeing that before congratulations fantastic fantastic amazing job choose a room yes congratulations it seems kind of appropriate to be drinking something liquid at the top of a water tower isn't I'm absolutely staggered by Andy's determination on this project he's been ruthless absolutely focused and in knew exactly what he wanted and with the help of Anna and all the family they've achieved the most beautiful building what I'm more amazed about is the reason why this was built was to allow this town to thrive and now it's the most beautiful home [Music] you [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Banijay History

Views: 210,967

Keywords: history, facts, interesting, documentary, history documentary, documentary history, history channel, ancient, world history, full documentary, top documentaries, documentaire, documental, documentary film, free documentary, full length documentaries, documentaries, factual, documentary full, history shows, history channel shows, victoria, victorian, water tower, victorian water tower, restoration, restore, conversion

Id: wohl4V2Sosk

Length: 47min 1sec (2821 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 28 2020