Rectangluar towers in primary schools - what are they for?

Alexis Sanchez

I saw this one in Slane, Co. Meath a while back: https://goo.gl/maps/dOmxn

I've seen a few of them across the country but never understood their purpose and I have a vague memory of my primary school teacher mentioning that there used to be one at the back of the old primary school and church grounds in my hometown, but all that remains is a peculiar, square-shaped indent and discolouration in the tarmacadam.

aphex™

It's a water tower.

kildarejohn

aphex™ wrote: »

It's a water tower.

I agree with Aphex.
Here is another picture of a national school - http://homepage.eircom.net/~killmolyon/
This one is a more traditional design with pitched roofs instead of flat roofs. This particular design was used for years (1950s-60s I think), and almost identical schools to this design can still be seen in hundreds of small town and village schools.

Query - does anyone know when the design in my Rathmolyon picture was introduced? Was it by some well known architect or was it a Board of Works production?

jonniebgood1

kildarejohn wrote: »

I agree with Aphex.


Query - does anyone know when the design in my Rathmolyon picture was introduced? Was it by some well known architect or was it a Board of Works production?

It was board of works common design that was repeated in almost identical classroom size, linear nature with either front or rear corridor (flat concrete roof over corridor). It was generally well thought out allowing for future extension. There is a decent description of the style here

typical of the linear style used throughout Ireland in the 1950s, particularly for school buildings, which blended traditional Irish building forms with contemporary international design elements. The water tower to the west end is a typical feature of national school from the period and this feature breaks the rigid symmetrical form of the design and adds incident to the skyline.

Common features in my experience are tiled roof, water tower, flat roof corridor, pebble dash plaster to walls and the similarities continue when you look at the windows and even wall construction with ring beams, etc.

Markcheese

Water towers all right - I remember helping my dad ( a plumber) do some work in the tower- partly draining the tank - it was manly - water black , remains of rodents ect . Then back in school on Monday watching lads drinking from bathroom tap -
Did most schools do a concrete "shelter " as well - we used it on wet days when we were kicked out at lunchtime but dunno was this the original function-

whisky_galore

My abiding memory of our 1939 built national school were huge single glazed windows, placed too high up for children to look out of (presumably to cut out outdoor distractions?) and you roasted in the classroom in summertime and froze in winter.

It didn't have that tower though, and the school was divided into male and female ends, with 'Buachailli' and 'Cailini' on plaques above the Art-Deco-esque concrete doorways at the relevant ends, though the segregation had ended years before. It did have two reinforced concrete sheds in each yard with a water drinking bowl in each, the pipes to these froze and burst every hard frost. An outdoor toilet block with primitive facilities completed the complex.

What was the function of the tower? Was it for drinking water? Did it have a pump or something inside?

Peregrinus

whisky_galore wrote: »

What was the function of the tower? Was it for drinking water? Did it have a pump or something inside?

Same as the function of any water tower - to utilise gravity to provide water pressure.

It's in the nature of schools and similar institutions that demand for water comes in surges - very little demand while classes are in session, but an awful lot of toilets get flushed in a few minutes during recess.

So water is fed under mains pressure at a steady rate up to a holding tank in the top of the water tower. The water pressure supplied to toilets, etc, is a function of how much higher than the toilets the tank is, but it doesn't depend on how much water is in the tank. So a steady water pressure is maintained (unless and until the tank runs dry, so it's important to have a big enough tank to meet anticipated surges in demand without running dry).

Markcheese wrote: »

Water towers all right - I remember helping my dad ( a plumber) do some work in the tower- partly draining the tank - it was manly - water black , remains of rodents ect . Then back in school on Monday watching lads drinking from bathroom tap

Water from the cold tap comes from the rising main, not from the water tank. The water tank supplies water for foul drainage (i.e. to flush the toilets) and for the hot water system (if there is one).

(Which, incidentally, is why you should never drink the water from the hot tap. It has come from just such a tank.)