1886
The Southwold Water Works Company - The company is founded this year. One of its first Secretaries is Southwold's Town Clerk, Solicitor, Ernest Read Cooper who practises at the Company's Registered Office, No 1 Market Place. Work started this year on building the water tower which is about 40 ft high.. The tank has a capacity of 40,000 gallons and is surmounted by a wind pump which draws water from a well, initially of some 60 ft deep. The use of wind-power on a watertower is an innovative idea in its day.
Over the following few years, water from the tower is piped to homes and businesses across a large part of the town, gradually replacing Southwold's many domestic wells and the communal Town Pump in the Market Place built 13 years earlier by the Child Foundry.
1899
On February 14 this year, the resident caretaker and engineer, George Neller (aged 39) is crushed to death when his coat gets caught in the pumping mechanism on the third floor. He leaves a wife, Jane and 10 year old son, Walter.
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