Pumping Houses At Cropston Reservoir Water Works

THURCASTON BRADGATE ROAD (South Side) SK 51 SW/SK 51 SE CROPSTON 3/4/107 Pumping Houses at Cropston Reservoir Water Works

GV II

2 Pumping houses of 1870 and 1894. By J.B. Everard of Leicester. Red brick with stone dressings and slate roof. In Tudor style with shouldered stone coped gables, stone band rising to form hood moulds over ground floor windows, hood moulds and label stops to first floor windows and buttresses with set-offs to sides. Complex consists of a 2 storey and basement 1870 pumping house (formerly beam engine), gable facing, with a 2 storey and basement 1894 pumping house (formerly triple expansion engine) at right angles to rear right. A 1 storey connecting building stands in angle where also the octagonal chimney tower, partly truncated, now of c 30m. To rear of 1870 house a 1 storey former boiler house building facing left. 1870 house has 5 polygonal stone steps leading up to stone doorcase with moulded Tudor arch and columns to sides. 2 leaved door. Painted stone tablet carved with Leicester City arms over. Above is a 5-light stone mullion window with 'Erected 1870' in stone over. 1-light window in gable. 3 3-light windows on both sides of building, those on ground floor with transoms. On rear 5-light window similar to front. Elaborate cast iron flashings and small lucarnes with finials to roof. Openwork stone parapet. This parapet with blank carving continues round tower. At summit a similar parapet over corbelled stone top. Below the 1 storey connecting building has stone steps up to door. 1894 house on gable end facing right has 6 polygonal stone steps up to stone Tudor style doorcase with elaborately carved foliage, Leicester City arms and A.D. 1894. 5-light window above. To both sides 3 mullion and transom windows to ground floor and 3 1-lights above, the architraves of which are connected to the parapet arcading. 1st floor 5-light to rear. Boiler house range of 1 storey and attic, 4 gables facing, that to left of 1894. Other 3 roofs have elaborate cast iron flashings and small lucarnes with finials. Below 4 pairs of carriage doors with hood moulds and label stops and 1-lights above, the first floor band rising to form their hood moulds. Stone coped gables. Further similar 1 storey building to left and rear connecting with 1894 house. In front of 3 pairs of the carriage doors a cobbled yard with low granite and slate rubble stone surrounding walls with stone coping and low entrance piers. Inside boiler house building iron tension roofs with cast iron Gothic style stretchers. Inside the 1870 house the room comprising the whole lst floor has massive triple purlin wooden roof with queen post type trusses c llm wide. The complex stands in parklike setting with choice trees and shrubs.

Listing NGR: SK5499011355