Cheese Lane Shot Tower

On Wednesday my friend and I completed our walk along the Kennet and Avon canal from Reading to Bristol. The last leg was from Keynsham to the Neptune statue in Bristol Centre, encompassing muddy riverside, industrial estates, regeneration and the city centre.

Although I thought I knew Bristol quite well, I'd never actually walked around the waterway from Temple Quay to Welsh Back. So I was surprised to find this building. It was built in 1969 as a replacement for the original shot tower. A shot tower is a tower designed for the production of small-diameter shot balls by free fall of molten lead, which is then caught in a water basin.

Now it's part of an office development. I'd love to go up.