Workshop, Agitator Engine House, Chief Engineer’s Office, Tinsmith's Shop and Dynamo House to Claymills Pumping Station

Workshop, Agitator Engine House, Chief Engineer's Office, Tinsmith's Shop and Dynamo House to Claymills Pumping Station

A complex of industrial buildings forming two separate ranges aligned north-east to south-west, built in red brick with slate roofs to serve Claymills Pumping Station.

The workshop and agitator engine house comprise the south-west range. The workshop is double-height with two gabled ranges recessed and framed by pilasters rising from a chamfered brick plinth. Stone coping with moulded stone kneelers tops each gable, which contains an off-centre wooden double-door under riveted wrought-iron lintels. The steam main from the boiler house enters over the left-hand doorway. To the right is a single-bay agitator engine house with two cast-iron framed casement windows. The rear elevation and both returns contain four bays divided by pilasters, each containing a cast-iron framed casement window with segmental gauged-brick heads. The right-hand return has a wooden doorway in the first two bays alongside a casement window.

The chief engineer's office, tinsmith's shop and dynamo house form the north-east range. These buildings are set over a basement on concrete piers with concrete plinths and a damp-proof course of blue engineering brick. The former office is a central two-storey block plus basement flanked by single-storey wings, with a recessed gable framed by pilasters. The ground floor has a central wooden double-door flanked by rectangular timber sashes. The first floor contains a central semi-circular headed window flanked by rectangular sashes. All windows except the central first-floor windows have segmental gauged-brick heads. The single-storey wings each have a segmental-headed doorway; the left-hand one is now blocked whilst the right-hand retains its original wooden door and a dormer roof vent. Adjacent to the right-hand wing is the single-storey dynamo house in two bays with a recessed gable framed by pilasters, a double-door to the right-hand bay and a rectangular timber sash to the left-hand bay, both with segmental gauged-brick heads. Cast-iron steps to the right provide rear access to the tinsmith's shop, which occupied the basement beneath the office and has three bays with a central wooden door flanked by cast-iron framed windows.

Interior

The workshop contains virtually all the original steam-powered machinery installed in 1900, including a vertical steam-engine of 1900 by Vernon and Guest of Smethwick which powered all machine tools through line shafting and belt drives. The workshop floor is a reclaimed wooden block from Rugeley A Power Station installed in the late 1990s as a facsimile of the original. The blacksmith's forge, completely rebuilt in 2005, retains its original 5-cwt (250 kg) steam-hammer.

The agitator engine house contains a steam-powered agitator engine which drove paddles mounted on a long shaft in the sewage culvert.

The dynamo house contains a self-exciting open-framed dynamo by Crompton and Company of Chelmsford dating from 1889, driven by a horizontal steam-engine by Buxton and Thornley of Burton upon Trent; this is believed to be the oldest working electrical generator set in Britain. A later self-exciting enclosed-frame dynamo by Crompton of 1906 is driven by a duplex vertical steam engine built in the Claymills workshop. The dynamo house also retains a late 19th or early 20th-century wooden control and distribution cabinet with a slate front panel. All machinery is bolted to the floor. The dynamo house contents were originally installed in the boiler house from 1900 but were moved to the purpose-built dynamo house in 1936–37 when the boiler house was upgraded and remodelled.

The former office, now refurbished as a visitors' centre, has painted brick walls and retains some original fixtures and fittings including wooden doors and carpentry.

A joiner's shop dating from 2004 is not of special interest.