While KaptainKlutz and Skyframe were scaling some remarkably unstable wooden ladders, having life affirming revelations and harassing pigeons, the rest of us land dwellers and tunnel hogs were milling about taking photos and enjoying a relaxed smoke or drink and a pork pie.
There was plenty of time to reflect on our journey so far and to look for some fantastically photogenic viewpoints from which to photograph the tower, some of which are shown below.
ABOVE: This photo shows the Water Tower looking from the Admin Block, due roughly south.
ABOVE: I'm quite pleased with this photo, it's nice andatmospheric and captures the feel of the brick and pipework without exposing the pideon shit too much (and there were mountains of it too!)
BELOW: This is the stairway up to the Water Tower's upper levels, where KaptainKlutz had his epiphany with a pidgeon. As can be seen, the steps aren't in great shape and generally trying to get up them isn't something we would recommend without professional climbing equipment. The missing steps were quite easily bypassed by stepping onto the descaling machine to the right of the ladder.
ABOVE: Panoramic mash-up of the economiser machine at the base of the water tower. The chains are attached to pipes which are pulled up and down the tubes in order to preheat water going into them using vented waste gases/exhaust heat. A fabulous example of this type of machine can be found in the British Engineerium in Hove, where it is driven by a small steam engine rather than a cruddy motor, as seen here.
ABOVE: At the base of the Water Tower, next to the ladder to the upper levels, there is a flight of spiral steps which lead tantalisingly down to the service tunnels under most of the corridors in the hospital (these have their own chapter later on). The view seen here is underneath the descaling machine: the tank is seen on the left. The service tunnels start on the extreme right.
Explore the Tunnels under Hellingly
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