Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 21 April 2022 to update text and reformat to current standards

SJ4166
1932-1/6/181

CHESTER CITY (EM)
LEADWORKS LANE (East side)
Chester Leadworks and Shot Tower

12/10/81

II*

Leadworks and shot tower, the works now largely storage. 1799 and later. Brick; slate roofs.

EXTERIOR: industrial workshop formerly of six bays, now three bays plus a higher west bay. The lower brickwork of south side to Chester Canal altered C20, with doorway and nine metal windows; gable clock, 1801, face to canal. The partly-glazed roofs are partly covered with sheet materials. The shot tower, the principal feature which justifies the star grading of this item, was built by Walkers Parker and Co. in 1799, primarily to provide lead shot for the Napoleonic wars. At the time of listing it was the only British shot tower to remain in use. It ceased operation in 2001. It is embraced by the workshops. Circular, 30 feet (9.1m) diameter at base and 20 feet (6.0m) diameter at crown, it is 168 feet (41.19m) high with an attached lightly clad steel-framed C20 lift-shaft.

INTERIOR: the shot-tower interior is intact with peripheral stone spiral stair; four round-arched windows, rising with the stair, to each turn.

HISTORICAL NOTE: the tower is important as evidence of the revolutionary process of shot production patented by William Watts in 1783.

(Associated Lead Manufacturers Trade Journal: Nichols DA: Chester's Shot Tower: London: 1980-).

Listing NGR: SJ4143666704

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Chester Shot Tower at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5093713

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)