Albert Edward Dock, accumulator tower

Albert Edward Dock, accumulator tower

HER Number
7292
District
N Tyneside
Site Name
Albert Edward Dock, accumulator tower
Place
North Shields
Map Sheet
NZ36NE
Class
Industrial
Site Type: Broad
Power Generation Site
Site Type: Specific
Hydraulic Accumulation Tower
General Period
POST MEDIEVAL
Specific Period
Victorian 1837 to 1901
Form of Evidence
Extant Building
Description
Hydraulic accumulator tower. Used hydraulic power to open the lock gates. 1882 for Tyne Improvement Commissioners. Engineers Ure and Messent. Rock-faced sanstone with quoins, ashlar plinth coping and dressings. Welsh slate roof. Two high storeys. Partly-glazed door under arch. Similar arches to windows. Pyramidal roof with railed lookout on top and gable above star-patterned panels, said to have contained clock faces. Interior - high quality sandstone ashlar; iron stair to machinery; hydraulic machinery. The only surviving example on the Tyne of hydraulic machinery, first developed at Newcastle by William Armstrong in the 1840s. LISTED GRADE 2*
Easting
435300
Northing
566940
Grid Reference
NZ435300566940
Sources
Joint Conservation Team, Newcastle City Council, 1990, The Albert Edward Dock Area, North Shields;
I. Ayris & P. Jubb, 1995, Hydraulic Accumulator Tower, Albert Edward Dock, Howdon Road, North Shields, Preliminary Report; Department of National Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 8/92