Galvanised steel tanks in Worcestershire

Growers, packhouses and winter water

Horticulture in the Vale has always depended on water: salad and vegetable crops on the flat land around Evesham and Pershore, orchards and soft fruit further west. Taking water from rivers in summer is often limited by licence conditions, so many growers fill storage in the wetter months and draw it down when the crop needs it.

A galvanised steel tank suits farms that want that store beside the packhouse or the irrigation pump without giving a field over to an open reservoir.

Tank or lined reservoir?

For very large volumes, a lined earth reservoir is often the cheaper route, and we line those as well. A steel tank wins where space is tight, where the ground is too wet or stony to dig into, or where the store has to be in service quickly. Being bolted, it can also be taken down and re-erected elsewhere later.

From base to first fill

The tank is only as good as what it stands on, so the sequence starts with your contractor's base and ends with a controlled fill.

• Base: a level concrete slab or engineered pad, built by others
• Setting out: we confirm level and position before panels arrive
• Shell: steel panels built up one ring at a time
• Liner: fitted inside, holding the water independently of the steel
• Fittings: inlets, outlets, overflow and level indication sealed in
• Commissioning: filling in stages and checking at each step

Other uses in the county

Beyond irrigation, enquiries come in for wash-down water at livestock units in the north-west of the county, collecting rain off big warehouse roofs near the M5 junctions, and process water on industrial sites around Worcester and Kidderminster.

Siting a tank on a Worcestershire holding

Most Vale holdings are flat, which helps: a level base is simpler to build, and the tank can sit close to the pump house. The things to settle early are lorry access for the panel delivery, working room around the ring for our crew, and where the overflow will discharge when the tank tops up in a wet spell.

On the sloping fruit farms of the Teme valley, the base usually has to be cut into the bank or built up, and that work is finished by your contractor before we arrive.