The Cheese Lane Shot Tower is a grade II listed shot tower, built in 1969, and was a replacement for an earlier shot tower, the very first such tower ever built. It now forms part of a private office development called Vertigo.
The efficient production of lead shot (for firing from muskets) was established in Bristol and patented by local plumber William Watts in 1782. He realized that dropping molten lead from a great height created perfectly spherical shot. Watts built the world’s first shot tower in his house on Redcliffe Hill.