Coleham Pumping Station

Coleham Pumping Station

A former sewage pumping station, now a museum, opened in 1901. It was designed by Taylor and Santo Crimp and built by Henry Price.

The building is constructed of red Ruabon brick laid in English bond, with sandstone dressings and a roof of Coalbrookdale clay tiles. The layout comprises an engine house facing south-east towards the street, with a lower boiler house, coal store and workshop set behind in two parallel gabled ranges facing the yard and river. The engine house contains a basement level, and its upper storey has two ranks of windows, creating the external impression of two storeys with basement. A square-section chimney is attached to the rear of the boiler house by a curved external brick flue with an arched top.

The south-eastern road front is a gabled, symmetrical front of three bays with stone quoins to the corners and lower window surrounds. Central panelled double doors are approached by a flight of stone steps. The doors have a basket-arched head with a projecting keystone connecting to a projecting pedimental overdoor supported by fluted brackets. Lower windows at either side have deep arched heads with projecting keystones and hoodmoulds. The central upper-level window is large with a round-arched head projecting into the gable, flanked by smaller windows with segmental heads. The gable has a triplet of louvered vents, stone kneelers, coping and a stone sceptre finial.

The flanks each have three bays with round-headed windows to the ground floor and segment-headed lights to the first floor. The north-western rear front is abutted by the lower engine house and coal store above these structures. A large arched window rises into the gable with three louvered vents to the apex, stone coping and finial. A vent with a square lower body and octagonal louvered upper body with octagonal lead cap sits at the centre of the ridge.

The boiler house and coal store group is attached to the north-west of the engine house. The yard front has double doors to the coal store with a cambered head and a basket-arched window to the lower gable. The parallel boiler house has a blank gable end with the chimney immediately in front, featuring a plinth and panelled upper body with moulded offsets.

The engine house interior has lower walling with glazed brown tiles below a moulded dado and exposed yellow bricks above. Two Woolf Compound Rotative beam engines made by W R Renshaw of Stoke-on-Trent are positioned to either flank, each with a 16-foot diameter flywheel placed close to the wall and piston set to the rear. Steps at the north-western end lead to an upper beam platform; above is a gantry with crane. The boiler house contains two Cornish boilers built by Galloways around 1899. A Lowcock economiser was originally fitted to warm river water before introduction to the boilers but was removed at an early date. Automatic stoking machines were introduced in the mid-20th century, with one since removed. Otherwise, little has been altered.

The surrounding enclosure is bounded by flank walls of red Ruabon brick. Facing the street is a screen wall with cast iron railings to its upper body, divided by brick piers with pyramidal stone caps. Paired iron gates aligned with the engine house entrance are at the centre, with a wide gateway to the right leading to the yard. A battered retaining wall of blue engineering brick laid in garden wall bond faces the river at the north-east end of the site, with stone coping and cast iron safety railing with ball finials to the uprights.

The collection of wooden and metal huts to the western side of the rear yard are not included in the listing.