Winch House at Mill Meece Pumping Station

Winch house at water pumping station, now museum, built circa 1914 for the Staffordshire Potteries Waterworks Company. It was designed by William Campbell and constructed by Thomas Godwin and Son.

MATERIALS: of Accrington red brick in English bond with stone dressings and a clay-tiled roof.

PLAN: it is a single-storey building with a square plan.

EXTERIOR: the building has a chamfered stone plinth, raised banded quoins, brick cogging and a pyramidal roof with exposed rafter ends. The north-west and south-west faces each contain a single window whilst the south-east face has a round-headed doorway with double wooden doors. Its north-east face is blind. Windows are six-paned casements with chamfered stone lintels whilst the window and door openings are round-headed with gauged brick arches with keystones. Below the window on the north-west face, partly set within the plinth band, there are two, shuttered, rectangular openings through which the winch rope leaves the building. It is then passed through two pulleys positioned at the top of the steel superstructure surrounding the rocking quadrant at the south-west end of the engine house. The winch provided the power to raise the pump rods and valves when the lift pumps needed regrinding.

INTERIOR: it houses a steam-powered winch of 1914, by J Woods and Sons of Wigan. To the roof there is a single king post truss.