Nineteenth Excerpt of 'Twelve Towers'

Gwilym had been busily writing this all down on the parchment. “Here are the requirements for this tower:"

The following day Athelstan arrived with five grizzled veterans. Fred and Gwilym sat down with them on rough stools and a plank board and started to discuss the tower. The shipper and the farmer were already in disagreement about the location of the tower but Gwilym assured them that this could not be moved. It was primarily a watchtower and this decreed the location. The secondary purpose of silo must be subordinate.

“How do ye expect us to deliver our grain to the top of a tower?” complained the farmer.

“How do you get water from the bottom of the well, you fool?” replied the shipper. Gwilym suppressed a grin.

“And where do you weigh our grain?” asked the farmer of Athelstan.

“Ve vill veigh it as you off-load it from your vagon. Den ve vill bring it up to de top viz a pulley.”

“Then you’ll need a path that leads from the main road to the tower and then continues around and back up to the road. We will all be coming near to the same time and no-one likes to back up a cart.”

The men all looked at the building site and agreed that this could be done.

“And pave the road! It will get too muddy here with all these loaded carts coming through at the same time.”

“Since ven does it rain at harvest time, farmer?” complained the carpenter.

“You don’t want to see what a mess it will make if it does, believe me!” replied the farmer.

Gwilym intervened. “I think we’ll be throwing off a lot of stone chips from the masonry work, won’t we?” He looked at Athelstan and received a nod. “Let’s make sure that we place all the waste where we want the road to be.”

“I’m happy,” said the farmer. “When can we start bringing in our harvests?”

“Well I’m not at all happy!” argued the boatman. “The farmer can bring his carts to the foot of the silo. How can I bring my ships? Will you dig a stream for them?”

The men looked out to the river. It was a good hundred yards from the river and ten feet down to the water. They looked back at Gwilym expectantly. “The Romans use plumbum and clay to make channels for the grain to move. But others make aqueducts out of hollowed-out logs. I believe we could use that technique to move grain down this hill. We’ll build the main channel out of clay, then use a hollowed out log to move the grain from the silo to the main channel and from the channel to the boat. As you get richer, you can always dig that stream.”

The shipper and the masons nodded their heads.

Fred murmured to Gwilym, “Seems like every time tha solves one problem, three more appear. What can tha do about it?”

“I write them down, Fred. We have to burn them into this scroll.”

Gwilym had been busily writing this all down on the parchment. “Here are the requirements for this tower:"

·         60 foot tall tower with roof dedicated to a watch and signal fire

·         Walls 20 feet wide faced with 2 foot of stone

·         Barracks inside with 600 square feet of living space (Three stories rather than one)

·         Stairs inside barracks allowing two men abreast to run up or down

·         Reinforced doors at second level of barracks

·         Strength of walls equivalent to tower at Huish

·         Stone wall separating silo from barracks

·         Clay-lined interior walls in silo half

·         Circular drive leading to foot of tower on the North side. Covered in stone chips

·         Entrance near top of silo on north side

·         Pulley system leading to top entrance of silo

·         Various doors near bottom of silo on southern face to allow for removal of grain from various heights

·         Channel system, lined with clay to send grain down to ships

·         Hollowed-out logs to move grain from silo to channel and channel to ship

Then men looked over these requirements, added some, refined others and came to an agreement about what was required for all to be happy about this tower. They shook hands all around and Gwilym nodded to an expectant Bleddyn who brought around a jug of ale and many cups. These were passed around and the men drank to the agreement.

To read the entire first draft in one shot, click here: