Springhead Pumping Station

SPRINGHEAD PUMPING STATION

Water pumping station, later waterworks museum. Built in 1863 by engineer Thomas Dale, with a western addition constructed in 1876. The building was remodelled internally in 1956, when an east porch was added and the chimney demolished. Late 20th-century alterations were carried out subsequently.

The structure is constructed of red brick with yellow brick, moulded brick and ashlar dressings. The roofs are slate and corrugated asbestos. The main block and western addition feature a plinth, first-floor band, and moulded cornice with machicolations. Bays are divided by full-height pilasters, and windows are set in shallow round-arched recesses, mostly consisting of round-arched metal-framed glazing bar casements with keystones.

The main block is 2 storeys with a 5-window range. A projecting central square stair tower rises through 2 stages and is topped with an octagonal lantern with broaches, round-arched openings and a shallow pitched roof with a weather vane. The tower features a tall round-arched window and above it a round glazing bar window with 4 keystones under a pediment. The ground floor right return has a smaller window, with 2 windows on either side. Below these are a similar smaller window and a taller window beyond. The rear elevation has 5 windows to the first floor. The right return has a pedimented gable containing a plain round window and above it a round-arched window. Below stands a pedimented brick porch with glazed double door and fanlight with keystone, flanked by single windows.

To the left of the main block is a single bay link building with a window between floors and below it a pair of board doors.

The 1876 western addition is 3 storeys with a 5-window range. The ground-floor windows are taller, while the second floor has pairs of smaller round-arched windows. The rear elevation mirrors the fenestration of the upper floors. The right return features a round-arched window with a graduated triple window above, and below a round-arched door with a round window above it. The left return has a blank round window in the gable, below which sits a glazed double door with fanlight and a round-arched window above.

At the rear are former boiler houses, single-storey structures with an 11-window range. Windows are set in panels divided by pilasters. The east side contains 7 windows followed by 2 blocked openings with inserted doors and a window, ending in a blank bay. The west side has blocked openings to left and right, a lean-to projection with 2 windows flanked to the left by two late 20th-century doors with fanlights and to the right by a segment-headed door and another window.

The interior of the 1876 addition contains an iron trussed roof with wooden span beams. A hand-cranked travelling crane runs on tracks at the top of the walls. In the south-west corner stands a cast-iron spiral stair with first floor landing. The building houses a single-acting Cornish beam engine with a wrought-iron beam pivoted on 4 cast-iron Doric columns linked by segmental arches. The steam chest and valve gear are carried on a similar pair of columns, and the first floor landing provides access to them and to the piston rod. The pump cylinder is fluted cast iron with a corniced top. The pump, ram and balance weight are carried by a girder frame set in a cast-iron well lining. The engine operated from 1876 to 1910.

This building and engine are representative of 19th-century municipal water works, illustrating how an architecture founded in objective functionalism could be employed to create a polite and elegant building whose purpose was nevertheless unmistakeable.