A four-storey water tower that's an architectural gem is for sale in the rural heart of the New Forest
Lister Tower has been reimagined an renovated in spectacular fashion.
The New Forest is beautiful, unspoilt and filled with charming villages and towns, separated by seemingly endless acres of open habitat and woodland. While this contributes to its charm, it also brings logistical difficulties: mains water didn't arrive in many parts until after the Second World War. And for the Victorian inhabitants of Fritham House at the turn of the 20th century, they needed a better way ensure a water supply.
Their answer was to build a four-storey tower with a reservoir at the top, from where the force of gravity would supply the big house with fresh water. An adjacent cottage was equipped with diesel generators to pump water up from below and into the reservoir.
Clever stuff, but the need for the tower had long gone — and in later years it became a quite extraordinary restoration project, turning the tower and cottage into a home. That home. Lister Tower, is now for sale through Strutt & Parker at £1.95 million.
The four-storey tower won awards for its conversion, and the owners have done a wonderful job of refurbishment and decoration of this smart, red-brick edifice.
Visitors and the new owners alike enter the property via the tower, from where a curved oak staircase awaits to take you up through the floors, each of which is around 160sq ft.
There is a bedroom on the first floor, a sitting room on the second floor and a bathroom on the third floor, which contains a William Holland nickel-plated, free-standing bathtub.
On the ground floor, the buildings that once housed the generators and pumps are still connected to the tower itself, but today house a striking 34ft kitchen and breakfast room, with a vaulted ceiling and exposed timber eaves.
A sitting room with a ceiling lantern skylight can be accessed via this room, and there are two further bedrooms with en-suite facilities in this single-storey part of the home.
Lister Tower also has a detached annexe contains a double bedroom, kitchen, living room and bathroom.
For horse owners, the story only gets better: Lister Tower comes with just over nine acres of land, five loose boxes and an all-weather arena.
The village of Fritham itself is tiny, though it's big enough to have a proper English country pub, complete with thatched roof.
Lister Tower is for sale through Strutt & Parker at £1.95 million — see more details.
