The Tank House, Coca Cola Enterprises Limited

Reasons for Designation

The Tank House, Coca Cola Enterprises Limited, Hardwick Terrace, Colwall, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural: the building is a clear imitation of the overall form of the Holy Well at Malvern Springs, but is an accomplished adaptation of that design to suit the purpose and needs of a tank house
* Architectural: the building was designed by the noted practice of Truefitt and Truefitt
· Intactness: the building has lost the tank and pipe work to its interior, but the elaborate external treatment is largely complete.
· Historic interest: the building is designed to advertise Schweppes' association with the town, and the history of the Malvern springs

Details

COLWALL

140/0/10011 HARDWICK TERRACE 17-FEB-11 The Tank House, Coca Cola Enterprises Limited

II A tank house, associated with a bottling plant for mineral water, designed by Truefitt and Truefitt c.1900. The building is of brick with tile-clad and partly-rendered walls. It has a hipped roof and a central square vent to the ridge with louvered sides, a pyramidal lead roof and a weather vane. There are two ranks of openings, but one internal space.

EXTERIOR: The south-eastern front has four bays. At ground floor level is the doorway at left of centre, with a stone surround, which has columns to either side of the round-arched opening with carved, foliate capitals. At left of this is a two-light casement with cambered head and to the right are a blocked lancet and a two-light casement with round-arched head. Standing in front of the ground floor is a lean-to timber veranda, with decorated fascia boards which continue as cusped bargeboards over the gabled head to the doorway. Above these at first floor level are four bays with similar, louvered openings with pointed heads. Above them are small gables with decorative bargeboards. The rear and flanks have stuccoed walling to the ground floor and tile hanging to the first floor. The rear has a single window to the ground floor at right of centre, which appears to have been added in the C20, and is otherwise blank.

INTERIOR: The interior is largely boarded with varnished pine and the upper openings in the south-eastern wall have shutters.

HISTORY: Malvern water had first been bottled by Schweppes in 1850 from the Holy Well spring at Malvern. Schweppes gained a concession for the 1851 Great Exhibition and featured Malvern Water in a large, glass fountain which formed one of the central accents in the Crystal Palace. The bottled water, which was initially known as Malvern Soda, changed its name to Malvern Seltzer in 1856. The company sought a railway link which would aid distribution and entered into an agreement with the Ballard family, who owned land in Colwall. The Ballards' own water supply was used at first, but a desire for greater capacity led them to sign a long lease in 1927 for the use of water from the Pewtress Well at Barton Court (now known as Primeswell). The well fed the 'burn' described in William Langland's 'Vision of Piers Plowman', and a pipe led from the wellhead through meadows and under the railway line to the site at Colwall. The building was initially used as a tank house for the bottling plant, but by the time of the survey drawing of the factory buildings in August 1945 it was recorded as the 'Female staff cloaks Ladies'. By the time of the closure the building was used as an exhibition room which showed the history of the factory.

The factory complex continued to operate as a bottling plant throughout the C20 and closed in November 2010.

SOURCES: The Builder, Vol. 62, (1892) 80ff Brockman, HAN, The British Architect in Industry 1841-1940, (1974) 71-2

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The Tank House, Coca Cola Enterprises Limited, Hardwick Terrace, Colwall, is designated for the following principal reasons: * Architectural; the building is a clear imitation of the overall form of the Holy Well at Malvern Springs, but is an accomplished adaptation of that design to suit the purpose and needs of a tank house * Architectural: the building was designed by the noted practice of Truefitt and Truefitt * Intactness: the building has lost the tank and pipe work to its interior, but the elaborate external treatment is largely complete * Historic interest: the building is designed to advertise Schweppes' association with Malvern and the history of the springs

SO7571242668

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

512149

Legacy System:

LBS

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