Sandhills Pumping Station

A water pumping station, built in 1935, by F J Dixon who was chief engineer for the South Staffordshire Waterworks Company, and constructed by Thomas Lowe and Sons, in a stripped-classical style. MATERIALS: red brick in Flemish-bond, with red Hollington stone dressing. PLAN: the engine house has a rectangular footprint on a north-west to south-east axis, with a rear service block. EXTERIOR: a single-storey building with a basement. The front elevation has three bays. A set of stone steps, flanked by dwarf walls, lead up to a central entrance which has double glazed doors and a fanlight within a rounded-arch with a deep key-stone and moulded brick surrounds. Above the arch is a 1935 date stone. The entrance is flanked by two large windows with glazing bars, both within arched openings in the same style as the entrance. At either end of the elevation are clasping pilaster strips formed by rusticated brick detailing. Above is a plain cornice band, wide stone panel inscribed SANDHILLS/ SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE WATERWORKS COMPANY and a stepped parapet. The returns are narrow, with a single projecting bay containing a round-arched window in the same style as the front elevation. To the rear is a lower office and service block. The side elevations have a single bay containing a large central window with glazing and margin bars, a basement window below, and flanked by recessed herring-bone patterned panels. The rear elevation has an asymmetrical fenestration, with a taking in door to the left and a set of entrance doors to the right. INTERIOR: the engine hall has red, green and cream tiled walls and a red tiled floor arranged in a herring-bone pattern. There are two wells surrounded by tubular metal railings in the centre of the room. An overhead cast-iron crane gantry manufactured by Herbert Morris Ltd is supported by pilasters. Above is a metal-framed, braced rafter roof. The service range has a tiled manager’s office with a framed historic plan of the pumping station fixed to the wall, and other tiled service rooms. A set of stairs with tubular metal railings leads to the basement which contains brick tanks, drains and maintenance corridors. Most of the building’s original internal timber doors survive, as does the foundation plaque, and original temperature and depth gages. The building houses C21 machinery, including two later electric pumps and the central modern control centre*, which are not of special interest. * Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the modern electric pumps and the rest of the modern plant equipment and modern central control centre are not of special architectural or historic interest. There are detached single-storey service buildings to the rear of the pumping station, including two concrete sheds and a brick chlorine treatment centre, that are excluded from the listing.