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Redcliffe Shot Tower

1782 establishments in EnglandBristol building and structure stubsBuildings and structures demolished in 1968Demolished buildings and structures in BristolShot towers
Towers completed in 1782Towers in Bristol
The Shot Tower, Redcliff Hill (geograph 6053703)
The Shot Tower, Redcliff Hill (geograph 6053703)

The Redcliffe Shot Tower was a historic shot tower in the English city of Bristol. It was the progenitor of many similar towers built around the world. The tower stood at the corner of Redcliffe Hill and Redcliffe Parade, in the suburb of Redcliffe, between the years of 1782 and 1968.In 1775, William Watts, a plumber, started converting his house, near St Mary Redcliffe Church, into the world's first shot tower, in order to make lead shot by his innovative tower process. He did this by adding a tower atop his house, and by excavating a shaft into the soft sandstone below, achieving a total drop of around 90 feet (27 m). By 1782, the tower was complete and in production, and Watts was granted a patent on his process, which involved pouring molten lead through a perforated zinc pan into water below.William Watts was declared bankrupt in 1794, but his tower survived various changes of ownership until it was taken over by the Sheldon Bush and Patent Shot Company Limited in 1868. The tower remained a well-known feature of Redcliffe until 1968, when it was demolished to make way for road improvements. The Sheldon Bush and Patent Shot Company's shot manufacture was transferred to the new Cheese Lane Shot Tower on the banks of the Floating Harbour.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Redcliffe Shot Tower (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Redcliffe Shot Tower
Redcliffe Parade East, Bristol Redcliffe

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.448298 ° E -2.590599 °
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Redcliffe Parade East

Redcliffe Parade East
BS1 6SJ Bristol, Redcliffe
England, United Kingdom
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The Shot Tower, Redcliff Hill (geograph 6053703)
The Shot Tower, Redcliff Hill (geograph 6053703)
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St Mary Redcliffe
St Mary Redcliffe

The Church of St Mary the Virgin, widely known as St Mary Redcliffe, is the main Church of England parish church for the Redcliffe district of the city of Bristol, England. The first reference to a church on the site appears in 1158, with the present building dating from 1185 to 1872. The church is considered one of the country's finest and largest parish churches as well as an outstanding example of English Gothic architecture. The church is so large it is sometimes mistaken for Bristol Cathedral by tourists. The building has Grade I listed status, the highest possible category, by Historic England. The church is notable for its many large stained glass windows, decorative stone vaults, flying buttresses, rare hexagonal porch and massive Gothic spire. With a height of 274 feet (84 m) to the top of the weathervane, St Mary Redcliffe is the second-tallest structure in Bristol and the sixth-tallest parish church in the country. The church spire is a major Bristol landmark, visible from across the city and, until the completion of Castle Park View in 2020, it was the tallest structure ever to have been erected in Bristol. St Mary Redcliffe has received widespread critical acclaim from various architects, historians, poets, writers and monarchs. In 1541 the English topographer and antiquary John Leland, claimed it was "the most beautiful of all churches" he had seen in England. Queen Elizabeth I, on a visit to the church in 1574, was said to have described St Mary Redcliffe as "The fairest, goodliest and most famous parish church in England". In 1628 Charles I similarly suggested that the church was "one of the moste famous absolute fayrest and goodliest parish churches within the Realm of England.” Simon Jenkins gives St Mary Redcliffe the maximum five-star rating in his book 'England's Thousand Best Churches', one of only eighteen to receive such a rating, describing it as a "masterpiece of English Gothic"; and Nikolaus Pevsner says that "St Mary Redcliffe need not fear comparison with any other English parish church".