With the current political climate anything but strong and stable, it may be time to consider whether moving to a secret World War II communications tower is the smart way to avoid the upcoming apocalypse.
Okay - I might be exaggerating the danger just a smidgeon, and the concept of large-scale violence is evidently nothing to joke about.
However, by chance, if this extremely niche turn of events had occurred to you, one such possibility has opened up in High Garrett near Braintree. The old Water Tower has been converted from a derelict prisoner of war camp's water tower to a rather stunning (if a little, shall we say, quirky?) modern family home. The Water Tower is now on the market through Zoe Napier via OnTheMarket.com at a guide price of £1.2 million.
Once known as 78 Working Camp, the Prisoner of War camp (which once held the brick red structure that still survives today) opened in 1928. Thought to have housed around 700 Italian and some German World War II POWs, it was the headquarters for a number of other smaller camps in the area.
Although long a famous landmark in the area, few knew the secret the tower held; it doubled as a communications hub, sending early warning signals of approaching enemy aircraft to the nearby American airbase Wethersfield.
This secret lay hidden in the derelict structure until 2017, when Jon and Vicky Oakley bought the building and its surrounding acre plot of land with the intention of restoring it.
Inside they found four storeys of wires, switchboards and wireless radios. Rusted through from exposure, all of the equipment was still secured to the walls. The discoveries didn't end there; within the garden they discovered US Air Force cutlery and ink pots, as well as helmets and empty gas mask boxes.
The Water Tower, true to its name, is 50 feet tall and boasts 5 storeys of wonders. John added a top layer to restore the structure to the height it was before the water tower was removed after the war. The metal panels in which the fourth floor is clad were made by Braithwaite in Newport, the very company thought to have built the original water tank in 1938.
The plot has become a smooth lawn from which the tower sprouts, well-kept and flat in comparison to its iconic tenant.
Now fully renovated, The Water Tower is now perhaps as far as you can get from a Second World War POW camp. A vision of soft silvers, chrome and glass, the bottom floor is an open plan kitchen and sitting room, with floor-length windows and a modern fireplace. Moving up the house is bedroom after bedroom, all with their own en-suite bathrooms.
The fourth floor is perhaps the most unique. With the potential to be a bedroom, the clad room, lit from wide roof lights, is currently in use as the largest dressing room you could imagine in a building with 7mX5m proportions.
In actual fact, it stretches across the entire floor and is larger than any of the other bedrooms, with a shoe rack to make Imelda Marcos (or, if your frame of reference is more recent, Elle Woods) jealous.
Then again, you may be safer in Switzerland.
Credit: On The Market
Picture-perfect country cottage with a dreamy English country garden
Church Cottage is the idyllic countryside family home for everyone, including Alexandra Fraser, who takes a look at its many
-
A historic villa for sale on the Via Nomentana worthy of Rome's rich historyThree floors, lots of balconies, and a private garden in one of Rome's loveliest neighbourhoods.
-
Eight bedrooms of unlisted Edwardian elegance with sweeping views of SomersetAshton House sits near the market town of Chard and comes with a wealth of amenities both inside and out.
-
A waterside cottage in Devon with a private quay, idyllic views and the prettiest summerhouse we've seen in yearsRight beside the picturesque Yealm Estuary, No 1 Noss Mayo is an idyllic home that feels like an escape from the world. Annabel Dixon takes a look.
-
This elegant Greek villa offers would-be buyers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live in the shadow of the AcropolisAthenian Legacy consists of two houses in walking —and almost touching — distance of one of the world’s most famous and precious landmarks.
-
Six charming homes up for sale, including one dubbed 'one of the most picturesque in Dorset', as seen in Country LifeOur look at the finest houses to come up for sale through Country Life in the past week is full of delights, from a new-Georgian mansion to a perfectly-sized Hertfordshire estate.
-
A Buckinghamshire mansion built for the speech therapist who set Churchill on his path to greatnessPenny Churchill takes a look at Rignalls, a classic Arts-and-Crafts home that looks like it's stepped out of the pages of an EM Forster novel.
-
A gorgeous home that offers a slice of country life in the heart of HampsteadThis idyllic Hampstead mansion has seen its price rise nine times faster than inflation — and it's not hard to see why.
-
Some of Scotland's most beautiful churches are being sold off for as little as £40,000 — but a word of warning before you take the plungeLucy Denton examines how best to help former church buildings thrive as times move on and property changes hands.
