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The Parish of Bix & Assendon places of interest |
The Victorian Water Tank, located at the top of the A4130 dual carriageway from Henley, and taking the turn left towards Bix Manor, was constructed c.1895. Whilst on private ground it can easily be seen by the storyboard erected by the hedge.
The tank was derelict for some sixty years becoming overgrown, broken up, lost to view and obviously serving no purpose. However, in 1998 it was spotted and investigated, and slowly its story, at least as best possible, was established and restoration of the tank began. Today it is a small piece of agricultural and social history.
Whilst it was common rural practice in the days before piped
water for hand dug, clay lined ponds for catching rain water to be built for
livestock and human drinking needs, brick-lined tanks like this one were very
uncommon. What the visitor sees is a brick-lined open tank, somewhat like a
domestic swimming pool (and probably deeper!), steep-sided and fenced from the
cattle field.
Access to the water was not directly, but via a hand pump alongside, near the
road. Once primed water flowed easily and abundantly into a bucket or similar
and carried off for various purposes.
The most likely uses were for refreshing the horses of the many horse drawn
coaches and wagons that trudged painfully slowly up the hill from Henley, also
as a refill water station for the steam engines used locally in forestry,
agriculture and in road building and not least for the domestic purposes of the
many cottages and houses hereabouts at that time.
The restoration was completed in 2002 and on 2 June (Jubilee Sunday) Boris
Johnson MP took part in a ceremony to commemorate both the Royal event and
completion of the project. Amusingly, he suggested it was to Bix as the Hanging
Gardens were to Babylon, and the Pyramids to Egypt.