Engine House at Sandfields Pumping Station

Engine House at Sandfields Pumping Station

This engine house, now disused, was built in 1872-73 by Henry Naden for the South Staffordshire Waterworks Company as an extension to their pumping station of 1858, which has since been demolished.

The building is constructed of blue brick with polychromatic red and yellow brick dressings and stone sills, with a slate roof. It is rectangular on plan, aligned north-west to south-east. Attached to the rear is a pumphouse added in 1966, which is of lesser interest and is partly built over the basement of the original 1858 engine house.

The exterior is designed in a free Italianate style, consisting of two tall storeys over a basement. The principal elevation faces south-west and comprises four bays, accentuated by polychrome brick bands at ground-floor level, at sill level and the springing line of the ground-floor windows, immediately beneath the sill level of the first-floor windows, and as a shallow frieze. The ground floor has three tall round-headed windows of gauged brick with polychrome brick banding to the jambs and small-paned cast-iron glazing with pivoted panels, set within round-headed recesses with brick apron panels, ashlar sills and keystones. The main entrance is set within the second bay from the right-hand side, accessed by a right-turn flight of stone steps with stone-coped brick walls topped with an iron handrail. It comprises boarded double doors with an ashlar lintel and a tall round-headed fanlight. The four first-floor windows, though smaller, are identical to those on the ground floor, set within flat-headed recesses with polychrome brick friezes decorated with a lozenge pattern. Above the frieze is a stone-coped parapet with decorative machicolations. The single-bay returns have identical architectural treatment, with the right-hand return containing a single window to each floor. A single-storey annexe adjoins the left-hand return, with a similar doorway entrance to the main range and a round-headed basement entrance. Above the annexe there is a single window. The rear elevation is formed by the external wall of the original 1858 engine house, which is blind above the 1966 pumphouse addition at ground-floor level.

The interior walls are identical to the external walls, constructed of blue brick with polychromatic red and yellow brick dressings. The east wall is the exterior wall of the original 1858 engine house and retains blocked window openings with late 20th-century openings cut through at ground-floor level. It houses a complete Cornish beam engine of 1873 by J and G Davies of Tipton, which rises the full height of the building. The bearing for the beam is supported by a Tuscan arcade of three semi-circular arches comprised of stone responds and two fluted cast-iron columns. The floor consists of large stone slabs with iron grates to several openings. Access from the ground floor to both the first floor and the upper beam floor is provided by a cast-iron staircase. The first floor is constructed from cast-iron beams covered with a cast-iron plate floor, whilst the upper beam floor is pine boarded with timber joists and cast-iron railings enclosing the beam. All cast-iron work was manufactured and installed by Messrs Thornewill and Wareham of Burton-on-Trent. The roof structure consists of king post trusses with decorative stop-chamfers with ends resting on stone pads set into the walls. The basement contains a well pump and condenser/cistern.