Cheese Lane Shot Tower, Grade II listed shot tower in Bristol, England
Cheese Lane Shot Tower is a concrete shot tower in Bristol, England, listed as a Grade II building and standing on the edge of the Floating Harbour. Its twelve-sided upper room sits above a narrower shaft, giving the whole structure a distinctive silhouette against the Bristol skyline.
A shot tower first stood on this site in 1782, using the height of the structure to let molten lead form into pellets as it fell. The current concrete tower replaced it in 1969 and continued producing lead shot until 1994.
The tower sits along the Floating Harbour and is now part of an office complex that mixes old industrial fabric with everyday working life. People passing by can still read its purpose in its shape, a tall narrow column built for a very specific job that no longer exists.
The exterior of the tower is visible from the Floating Harbour waterfront and is best seen on foot while walking along the water. The interior is part of a working office complex, so access inside is generally not open to visitors.
The process used inside a shot tower required dropping molten lead from a great height through a sieve so it formed round pellets before landing in a water tank below. This method was barely changed from the 18th century to the day the tower stopped working.
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