Claymills Pumping Station

Claymills Pumping Station is a Grade II* listed building constructed in the free Italianate style, aligned north-east to south-west. It comprises two rectangular engine houses linked by a rectangular boiler house with a rear central chimney stack. The building is constructed of red brick with hipped slate roofs of low pitch, hidden behind parapets to the engine houses, and a ridge and furrow roof of box profile steel sheeting with ridge-line vents to the boiler house.

Each engine house is two storeys over a semi-basement with deep plinths, paired clasping pilasters at the angles, plat bands over the semi-basement, moulded brick cornices to the ground floor, moulded stone cornices to the first floor, and stone-coped parapets. The symmetrical principal north-west elevation of each engine house features central double doorways to the semi-basement, a wide tripartite window with narrow flanking windows to the ground floor, and four rectangular windows to the first floor. All window and door openings have segmental gauged-brick heads and all windows are one-over-one timber sashes. The north-east and south-west elevations are of two bays, divided by paired clasping pilasters, with a blind semi-basement, two tripartite windows to the ground floor, and six rectangular windows to the first floor. Running across the south-east elevation of both engine houses are the rods that operated the metering equipment in the lime dosing facility, added after 1893.

The boiler house is one-and-a-half storeys over a basement with a three-bay principal elevation which projects and is divided and framed by wide pilasters. Each bay contains a cast-iron casement window of seven-over-seven panes. A moulded brick cornice runs across the top of this elevation beneath a stone-coped parapet. The returns are of two bays, with the left-hand return having a cast-iron framed casement window of seven-over-seven panes and a wagon doorway with a concrete lintel giving access to the internal coal store. A short section of railway track leads into the building. The right-hand return has a similar wagon doorway, to the right of which stands the boiler feed pump house, a small single-storey building with cast-iron framed casement windows. The south-east elevation of the boiler house has a projecting central range of two bays with two cast-iron framed casement windows of six-over-six panes set beneath two round windows with gauged brick surrounds. Flanking this central range are two recessed bays, each with wooden doorway with segmental-headed fanlights and cast-iron framed casement windows of five-over-five panes.

Standing to the rear of the boiler house and connected to it by an economiser unit in the flue is a tall, tapering chimney of approximately 30 metres in height. The chimney is octagonal on plan with iron-tie rings and a moulded brick cornice and cap. The top section of approximately 10 metres was demolished and rebuilt in 1996.

The interior of each engine house is largely complete, each containing a pair of Woolf-type compound rotative beam pumping engines manufactured by Gimson and Company of Leicester in 1885. Double doors in the south-east elevation of each engine house provide access to a small platform overlooking the beam end pumps. From here a spiral staircase of cast iron leads up to the driving floor. In the north corner of the driving floor a staircase leads to the mezzanine-level packing floor, with the final flight of stairs giving access to the beam floor. The beams are of wrought iron box girder construction, each carried on a central bearing supported by four Tuscan order cast iron columns to the driving floor. At the top of each engine house is a manually operated gantry crane. Each floor of the engine house is made up of separate cast-iron plates which can be lifted to allow the crane access throughout the building. In the semi-basement of C/D engine house, under C engine, there is a bathroom with painted brick walls containing a bath constructed from blue engineering brick and an original gas light fitting. The engines in C/D engine house were restored in the early 21st century and the cylinders have been encased in mahogany cladding as a facsimile of the original design.

The boiler house contains five Lancashire boilers by John Thompson of Wolverhampton and two economisers by Green's of Wakefield, all installed in 1936-37. The boilers are fitted with mechanical stokers by Meldrum and Clayton of Manchester, originally installed in 1919. At the north-east end of the boiler house is a small room containing a stand-by boiler feed pump by Buxton and Thornley of Burton-upon-Trent. On the north-west side of the boiler house is the coal store which contains coal storage bunkers and a section of railway line which allowed coal to be discharged directly from coal wagons into the bunkers. Beneath the boiler house is a disused sewage holding chamber which was decommissioned on health and safety grounds shortly after the pumping station opened. It now provides the main source of water for the boilers, filling naturally through groundwater. The adjoining boiler feed pump house contains two boiler feed pumps: the principal pump is a vertical feed pump by Halls and Sons of Peterborough whilst the second pump, now disconnected from the water supply, is a rotative feed pump by Buxton and Thornley. Also contained in this building is a 'Westminster' engine by Edward Bennis and Company of Bolton, installed in 1902 to power the overhead line shafting for the stokers.

The A/B engine house is located to the south-west of the boiler house whilst the C/D engine house stands to the north-east of the boiler house. An early 21st-century replica of E engine house stands to the north-east of C/D engine house and is not of special interest.