Saltash Cramleigh March 2015 February 2015 | Page 32

Saltash History 8O,OOO Gallon Water Tank.

The siren’s normal use was to
call out the fire brigade but it
was used as an air raid warning
siren during the war. The tank
pictured was installed in 1960
and had a capacity of 80,000
gallons. The tank was dismantled
in 1979 (see photograph below).
The vertical pipe to the right of
the garage is a drain vent pipe.

Until the late 1880’s the
people of Saltash drew
almost all of their water
from wells. Nearly every
house of any substance had
its own private well. Those
without a well had to use
one of the seven public
wells in the town. During
drought periods, many of
these wells dried up. Ell
well, on the N.E. slope of
the town, was sometimes
the town’s only source
of water. In 1894, Saltash
Council came to a deal with Plymouth
to supply the town with water from
Burrator Reservoir via a pipeline.
The photograph (top left) was taken
in July 1971, but the first tank to
be erected on the site (which is the
highest point in Saltash at 328ft)
in 1926 was much smaller with a
capacity of 35,000 gallons. The siren
(to the left of the tank) was then
mounted on the tank itself but moved
to its own post when the tank was
first enlarged in 1954.
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Incorporated into the garage wall is
one of the original boundary markers
for the town but this is sideways
on and cannot now be seen. This
boundary stone was known locally
as ‘The long stone’, hence Longstone
Road.
In 1936, there was another smaller
tank at the end of Glencoe Terrace
and Cross Park; this tank was
removed in 1964.

Article courtesy of Bruce Hunt,
Saltash Heritage.

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