Pond Farm Camp, Salisbury Plain: Observation towers? Water tanks?

[Moonraker]

I've long been intrigued by two tower-like structures that appear on the hillside above Pond Farm camping-site on Salisbury Plain. This was much used in the early 20th century for summer camps, often by mounted units. It was last used in the winter of 1914-15 by Canadian troops. I can't spot anything likely on the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1899 revision, published 1901, though it does show rifle and artillery ranges nearby. The 1922 revision, published  1926, suggests that the artillery ranges had greatly expanded, with a number of splinter-proof shelters, "tanks" (holding water), and "Urchfont Tower" (presumably an observation post) on and close to where the camping-site was.

Recently I came across an image of civilians visiting the prewar camp that gave a closer view of the structures:

I now reckon they are observation posts. Any thoughts, please?

[Moonraker]

Happily I've come up with the answer to my own question. They are indeed observation towers - they are marked as such to the left of "27".

[Moonraker]

I've just acquired another card of Pond Farm Camp, just because it showed a slightly better image of the observation towers:

Though looking at the structures now, they don't look very practical, with just one small window - unless the observers were positioned on the roofs?

[FROGSMILE]

1 hour ago, Moonraker said:

I've just acquired another card of Pond Farm Camp, just because it showed a slightly better image of the observation towers:

Though looking at the structures now, they don't look very practical, with just one small window - unless the observers were positioned on the roofs?

I suspect that they were on the roofs as you say, unless there are observation slits running horizontally along the top edge.  There’s a drainage pipe to allow for run off.  They look like the bottom was perhaps brick containing windows, but with a cast iron panelled top in three rows of hectagonally arranged plates.  To be honest they look to me more like water tanks on top of brick bases.

I went and walked over the pond farm itself a few times and found bricks and what little was left of the farm buildings, but never got as far as the camp site and old water tower.  For a 8-year period I was out on the periphery of the impact area at least 3-days a week and usually entered through the Lavington, or Redhorn Vedettes when up near that area, so I got to know it quite well.  Stunning in summer, but painfully exposed in winter.

Edited 27 February by FROGSMILE

[Moonraker]

Thanks as ever, Frogsmile, I'm inclining towards the structures being water towers, as suggested in this OS 6-inch map surveyed in 1922 (by when Pond Farm camping-site was disused). I note twin structures marked as "tanks" close to the old Devizes-Salisbury road, other "tanks", "bathing tanks (disused)" - and "Urchfont Tower" and "Telephone House" - all quite intriguing!

The 25in map of the 1922 survey gives a clearer impression.

Last night I emailed the curator of Market Lavington Museum whose blog has some excellent information  on the ranges and a modernish photo of where Pond Farm was. (Enter "Pond Farm" in the search box.)

Last September I walked close to the area we're discussing when the ranges were open, keeping to the rights-of-way, and wondered about the curious construction of the modern observation towers, which had an extra storey above the windows - perhaps modern water tanks, not that I saw any pipework.

[Fovant]

They look like water towers, and if the camp was used by mounted units the horses would need far more water than the troopers. There is also a pumping station marked on the map, which may have been used to keep them topped up.

I would imagine that the local farms would have used wells. I was brought up on a farm in Sutton Mandeville which still used a well for its water supply in the 1960s. My great grandfather was a dowser who constructed agricultural windmills in the Romsey area in the 19th century.

[FROGSMILE]

1 hour ago, Fovant said:

They look like water towers, and if the camp was used by mounted units the horses would need far more water than the troopers. There is also a pumping station marked on the map, which may have been used to keep them topped up.

I would imagine that the local farms would have used wells. I was brought up on a farm in Sutton Mandeville which still used a well for its water supply in the 1960s. My great grandfather was a dowser who constructed agricultural windmills in the Romsey area in the 19th century.

Yes pond farm had a well just as you suggest and I found it when wandering the ruins.  It had a concrete cover put there by the MOD that had been partially displaced.  I concur with your comments about the pumping station.  Presumably the water towers worked (dispensed water) by a gravity feed system.  Whether that was connected to the nearby camp’s water pump, or an inner mechanism drawing water from aquifers beneath, I do not know.  There was no trace of the towers that I could see so their demolition must have been thorough. 

Edited 28 February by FROGSMILE

[Moonraker]

Thanks for your comments. I attach a plan of the 1908 camp,  showing bathing and foot ponds, "civilians trough", and cavalry lines. The water towers would have been on the extreme right. The crop with which I started this thread shows the other side of the towers to the one in my later crop. The latter came from a "sharp" photo, whereas the former provides only a blurred impression, despite the photographer being closer to the towers.

[AlexMac]

With regard to the pumping station, I am wondering if this is the same one which is still standing, a concrete bunker half buried in the hillside? The position relative to the track running near it is as I recall it. Its construction seemed post Great War, lots of substantial concrete and RSJs supporting a concrete flat roof, but may be in the same location but since improved. I remember coming across it once in 1970s while out wandering as a kid (we knew when the impact zone was active or not), an eery place.

Edited 25 April by AlexMac
Addition of point

[Moonraker]

Looking through my collection, I noticed this card showing water towers at Perham Down Camp, near Ludgershall:

[FROGSMILE]

14 minutes ago, Moonraker said:

Looking through my collection, I noticed this card showing water towers at Perham Down Camp, near Ludgershall:

That must be somewhere reasonably close to where they subsequently built the Royal Engineers barracks.

[WhiteStarLine]

26 minutes ago, FROGSMILE said:

That must be somewhere reasonably close to where they subsequently built the Royal Engineers barracks.

If I've got the right area, then the 1918 Artillery Training map is georeferenced on TrenchMapper and shows the Engine House and Reservoir (War Department) with a light blue circle inscribed.  Revealing the modern imagery beneath seems to show a significant building where the reservoir once was.

 

[Moonraker]

Interesting. And here's an enlargement of a crop from the 1899 revision of the OS six-inch map, published in 1901.

Of all the Wiltshire WWI camps, Perham Down is the only one where I'm unaware of any traces of infrastructure of 110 years ago. As WhiteStarLine's  aerial images show, the site has been greatly built on.

[FROGSMILE]

35 minutes ago, Moonraker said:

Interesting. And here's an enlargement of a crop from the 1899 revision of the OS six-inch map, published in 1901.

Of all the Wiltshire WWI camps, Perham Down is the only one where I'm unaware of any traces of infrastructure of 110 years ago. As WhiteStarLine's  aerial images show, the site has been greatly built on.

Yes it does seem to me likely that the reservoir will have been filled in before new building foundations were laid over it.

Edited 9 September by FROGSMILE