Skip to content

Lincoln Cathedral's WW2 water tank excavated

Timelapse video of work to excavate water tank used for protection against incendiary bombs.

An underground tank built in World War Two to provide firefighters with water if Lincoln Cathedral was bombed has been excavated.

Archaeologist Mark Allen said the tank was built to deal with the threat from incendiary devices being dropped by the Germans.

He said water for the "very large tank" had to be pumped from the Brayford Pool, over a kilometre away.

But it was never needed and will now be filled in, he said.

Mr Allen said the tank measured 20m (65ft) in length, about 10m (32ft) wide and 3m (10ft) deep.

"It needed to be big to hold enough water to hose the cathedral," he said.

Susan Taylor Building Lincoln Cathedral's water tankSusan Taylor
The tank was built to provide water in case of an air raid
Susan Taylor Filling the tank with waterSusan Taylor
It was filled with water from Brayford Pool

In 2016, local resident Susan Taylor revealed photos showing her grandfather Frank Brown, of for Lincoln Fire Brigade, helping to build the tank and "capture a team working together to help protect our precious cathedral".

The work is part of a multi-million pound project to renovate the cathedral and its grounds.

Susan Taylor The fire brigade in actionSusan Taylor
Susan Taylor said her granddad worked "to help protect our precious Cathedral" (right)