Chester Shot Tower

[3][4] The tower was one of the earliest built to manufacture lead shot using the method pioneered in the 1780s by the Bristol inventor William Watts.

[1] Molten lead was poured through a pierced copper plate or sieve at the top of the tower, with the droplets forming perfect spheres by surface tension during the fall; the spherical drops were then cooled in a vat of water at the base.

An archaeological investigation carried out in 2001 found evidence of numerous demolished buildings contemporary with the shot tower of 1799;[3] by 1812, the leadworks is known to have also included pipe-drawing machines and a rolling mill for producing lead sheet.

The catalogue of buildings and machinery reveals a wide variety of lead related products, paint, pipes, shot, sheet, casting and acid-house.

[3] Most of the remaining buildings of the leadworks, with the exception of the shot tower, were demolished around 2004 to make way for urban regeneration of the canal-side area.

[6] In April 2012 Broadway Malyan submitted plans for a £6.4 million redevelopment of the Shot Tower and associated leadworks to create 53 residential units as well as leisure and retail facilities.