Boiler-And-Pump Houses And Hydraulic Accumulator Tower

The Boiler-and-Pump Houses and Hydraulic Accumulator Tower, built in 1876 and later extended and altered, are located at the Ellesmere Port and Neston Docks Basin. These structures were originally used to supply hydraulic power to warehouse and dock machinery, and from 1910, to an adjoining flour mill.

The rectangular boiler house is constructed of brown brick with a projecting blue brick plinth, corner piers, and parapet gables featuring stone copings, shaped finials, and kneelers. It has three semi-circular window openings and a camber arched doorway on the southeast side. A tapering, steel-banded octagonal chimney with a boldly coved projecting cap stands free at the southwest end of the boiler house, which houses two Lancashire boilers.

Adjacent to the boiler house is the rectangular pump house, which is taller and made from the same materials with similar detailing. It features a raised iron floor and a flight of stone steps leading to a framed and boarded entrance door. The northeast side has tall paired round-arched small-pane iron windows in the southwest gable. An extension built in 1910 at the west corner accommodates pumps for the now-demolished flour mill. The pump house originally contained two horizontal duplex pumps from 1876 by Sir W G Armstrong & Co (one of which has been restored) and two later vertical pump engines, including a larger twin tandem compound from 1910 by Peam of Manchester.

Adjoining the northwest side of the pump house is the square accumulator tower, which has massive timber corner-posts, weatherboarded sides, and a slate pyramid roof. Inside the tower is a vertical weighted hydraulic ram with a diameter of 16.875 inches and a stroke of 12 feet, bearing approximately 70 tons of pig-iron in a cylindrical container to provide a pressure of 750 pounds per square inch.