Grimsby is one of the gateways to the North Sea and its Royal Dock Tower is a symbol of the town's importance as a port.

By the early 1900s Grimsby was one of the world's premier fishing ports.

The Royal Dock was opened by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert more than 150 years ago, and it has been a life saving landmark.

The tower is 309 feet tall and is designed in the style of Siena's Palazzo Publico.

The tower was designed by architect James William Wild in a similar style to the Palazzo Publico in Sienna, Italy.

It was designed to store water to provide hydraulic pressure to operate lock gates and to supply drinking water to ships, the fish market and houses on the dock estate.

The tower's reservoir was able to hold 30,000 gallons.

The tower has a base of 28 feet which tapers to 26 feet just under its first projection.

It overlooks the man made harbour which uses a series of locks to raise the water level using hydraulics designed by the Victorial engineer William Armstrong in 1852.

Today the RAF has added another function to the tower, using it as a landmark in aircraft navigation.