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Tuesday 8 July 2008

Shrubland Park Water Tower

Coddenham, North of Ipswich OS Map ref TM128530

Shrubland Park is one of the finest examples of an Italianate house and garden in England. Sir Charles Barry, architect of the Houses of Parliament, and Sir Humphrey Repton were the garden's principal designers. A water tower is still in use. It is of square construction in Suffolk white brick, heavily butressed with a battlement top about 80 feet high. The main tank is about 30,000 gallons in cast iron sections bolted together. The tank is filled by a well estimated at 120 feet deep adjacent to the tower. The tower is part of the site of the Old Hall and is it thought the well is even older. The hall was begun in the 1770's and altered and extended in the 1840's. The tower builders went to some length to make the tower an acceptable feature in the landscape.

The sale of the park was announced in 2006 and as far as we know it remains closed to the public.

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