The Shot Tower: a monument to British ingenuity! – By Hemantha Yapa Abeywardena Towering into the sky by a brook that carves its own path across a nature reserve in the English county, Middlesex, the canopy of a magnificent structure, gleaming in the spring sunshine, hints at a story of a forgotten industry, waiting to be told. This is a shot tower, a silent sentinel of a bygone era that has been holding its ground, as well as an inexplicable aura, during the passage of time. They, once scattered across Britain in a few locations, were industrial structures that played a key role in the Empire where the Sun never set. The shot towers used to produce lead shot for firearms using molten lead. The choice of location, near a steady flow of water, however, had nothing to do with the dictates of the alignment of lucky stars of the ...
May 18, 2024
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Articles, Hemantha Yapa Abeywardena
Tagged 18th-century shot towers, British industrial heritage, British ingenuity in industry, Decline of shot towers, Hemantha Yapa Abeywardena, Historic industrial structures, Historical shot towers, Industrial monuments in Britain, John Constable shot towers, Lead shot manufacturing process, Lead shot production, Middlesex shot tower, Shot tower history, Shot tower locations, Shot towers in London