Full Circle

The Thames and Severn canal was completed in 1789. It linked the existing Stroudwater canal (which joined Stroud to the river Severn) with the headwaters of the Thames at Lechlade, making it possible to navigate across the country from the Celtic/Irish seas in the west to the North sea and Englush Channel in the east. It had a troubled history of water-shortage, leakage, poor navigability on both rivers and, from only 20 years after it was built, competition from more reliable canals and, a little later, the railways. Somehow, it struggled on for almost 130 years before being abandoned. There is, of course, a long-term restoration project

It's construction included building five houses for 'lengthsmen': individuals who were responsible for a 'length' of the canal structure, a sort of caretaker role. They trimmed and repaired banks, maintained towpaths, managed weirs, dredged (with horses) where necessary, helped with lock-keeping. Idiosyncratically, the houses on this canal were three-storey, circular, limestone towers - conjuring the word 'watchtower' - and, in fact, a good view up and down the canal was an advantage

The walls are over 10 metres high and the lead-lined roof is in the form of an inverted cone, collecting rainwater in the centre, then piping it to and external water store at ground level. There is no record of why a circular design was chosen, but it may not have proved a great success, as subsequent house-building for canal staff did not follow the same model

The tower is the tallest structure in the picture, partly obscured by later buildings. It is now in private hands. This is the most easterly of the five, near to Lechlade. Minutiae about the structure of the towers is here

In other news, science has finally confirmed what we have always known in our hearts: the moon is actually composed of Gruyère