Dirtness Pumping Station

HUMBERSIDE BOOTHFERRY 5262

SE 70 NW BELTON A 18 (south side) Dirtness 6/3 Dirtness Pumping Station

GV II

Drainage pumping station. 1867. Red brick in English bond, with polychrome brick and ashlar dressings. Welsh slate roof. Sandstone ashlar culvert and revetments to bank. Rectangular on plan with engine house flanked by ranges to north and south, the latter (present pump room) standing over the culvert carrying the Boating Dike / North Engine Drain. Tall single-storey engine house flanked by lower single-storey ranges. Chamfered plinth. East side: engine house has twin pilasters with decorative brick capitals supporting full-height round arch with decorative flush brick bands, over a recessed brick panel containing tall twin pointed window with bracketed sill, slender cast-iron nook-shafts and Gothick glazing, beneath round arch of black brick with polychrome impost bands. Right window has C20 steps to inserted door. Gable has trefoiled polychrome brick frieze forming raking cornice, moulded brick kneelers, and stone coping with carved heads in trefoiled gablets to each end. Single-bay south pump-room range slightly set back to left stands on a slightly recessed segmental arch over the ashlar-lined sluice: angle pilaster to left and brick and ashlar corbel to right carry round arch with carved ashlar Neptune head keystone over recessed panel containing segmental-headed window with glazing bars (replaced by C20 glazing to lower half), with small blocked window above. Corbelled polychrome brick raking cornice, stone-coped gable. 4 bay north range set back to right has blind arcade of round arches on pilasters with moulded capitals: waggon entrance to right arch has pair of board doors beneath fanlight with vertical glazing bars, arches to left have recessed panels with brick bands at impost level and lunettes with radial glazing bars. Twin gables, each with a blind oculus, corbelled brick raking cornices and stone coping. South side: 5-bay blind arcade of round arches on pilasters with black brick lozenge ornament and polychrome brick capitals; double board doors to first bay beneath timber lintel, 16-pane sash to central bay beneath segmental arch; corbelled polychrome brick cornice. North side has similar 4-bay blind arcade, partly obscured by C20 addition to right. West side similar to east, except that engine house has tall round-headed window with glazing bars, range to right has 16-pane sash and small 4-pane window in round-arched panel with carved lion's head keystone, and range to left has blind arcades. Interior. Original machinery removed from engine house. Range, to north contains cast- iron columns. The pumping station originally contained a James Watt low pressure condensing beam engine from the Soho, Birmingham, works, driving a scoop wheel. Refitted in 1928, and again in 1952 with electrically driven pumps. V Cory, Hatfield and Axholme, an Historical Review, 1986, pp 90-91.

Listing NGR: SE7496309789