Waterworks at Whitacre: Pumping Station, Filter House, Water Well and Superintendent's Office

Waterworks at Whitacre: Pumping Station, Filter House, Water Well and Superintendent's Office

A former pumping station of around 1872 with additions of around 1880, designed by John Henry Chamberlain and William Martin. Later additions and alterations were made in the 1930s and 1950s.

The buildings are constructed in red brick laid in English bond with stone dressings and a plain tiled roof. They are situated to the east of a man-made reservoir and to the south of the Birmingham to Derby mainline railway.

To the north stands a long range of around 1880 which formerly housed enclosed railway sidings along its northern flank, above which were workshops, stores, and the superintendent's office at first-floor level. The southern part of this range contained a large two-storey boiler house, which was converted in 1955 to accommodate filtration tanks. Attached to the southern flank of this principal block are engine houses of around 1872 (to the west) and around 1880 (to the east), both two and three storeys with basement levels. To the south-west stands a circular well house.

The western engine house, dated to around 1872, has a south-facing façade with a doorway left of centre at ground floor level, above which are two small lancet windows in a pointed relieving arch. To the right is a three-light window with arched heads recessed under a wide relieving arch, and to the left a two-light window with stone surround and cusped head. The first floor is slightly recessed with five bays divided by pilaster buttresses. The three central bays contain two-light windows with colonettes to centre and sides, carved heads and bases, cusped light heads, and hexafoil roundels within moulded stone surrounds. The pilaster buttresses die back before the wall head, and a richly-moulded corbel table tops the wall. The eastern gable end displays a two-light window with hexafoil to the apex and stone surround rising into the gable. To its left is a circular corner turret with lancet lights and a candle-snuffer roof with lead and cast-iron finial. The western gable end has an apsidal projection with lower ridge and paired and single lancets. The north face is similar to the south, though its lower body is masked by the later boiler house range.

Internally, the western engine house has steel girders placed axially to support floors and machinery. The roof is timber with crown posts, chamfered ties and collars, and chevron boarding. The apsidal western room at first-floor level contains a large metal tank flanked by spiral staircases with an upper walkway.

The eastern engine house, dated to around 1880, has a south-facing façade with central doorways at ground and first-floor levels. The ground-floor doorway is approached through an arch with quatrefoils to the stone spandrels. An L-shaped staircase leads to the first-floor panelled doors, which have a clock face set in the fanlight. Either side have two-light windows with stone surrounds and cinquefoils to each apex. The upper stage has two mullioned and transomed windows at the centre with arched heads to the lower lights and quatrefoils in the upper lights. The east and west gable ends are similar, with semi-circular bows to the outer bays containing small lancets at different levels and conical roofs. At the centre of each gable's first floor is a triple lancet. Each gable has a stone plate-tracery rose window with a cusped central light surrounded by seven circular lights. The east front has a basement doorway (revealed due to ground level fall), above which stands the base of a truncated former boiler chimney with stone and blue-brick dressings. To its right are a two-light window and a later lean-to shed, which replaced the former external staircase leading to the superintendent's office. Further right is the doorway to the internal railway sidings.

Internally, the eastern engine house retains pipework and tanks at basement and ground-floor levels. The first-floor engine hall contains early-20th-century pumps and control gear. One corner holds a drawing office with wooden frame and decoratively leaded windows, containing fitted furniture including a glazed cupboard and plan chest. Another corner has a decorative wooden framed enclosure surrounding a men's lavatory. The roof, with three pitches supported on internal axial steel beams, has chamfered collars, ties and crown posts with chevron boarding.

The former boiler house, fronting the railway sidings, has a northern face of seven bays with three-light windows, alternating gables and hipped roofs above each. The recessed first floor has wider three-light windows with a circular window to the gable above each. The roof ridge centre has a louvered penthouse.

Internally, the former boiler house has a roof supported by curved and pierced steel girders forming a series of pointed arches along the length of the hall. Filtration tanks have been fitted. The first-floor workshops retain fitted benches and cupboards.

The circular well head building has a doorway to its east side. The conical roof has a glazed penthouse to its apex. The interior contains a domed brick ceiling with an oculus at its centre.

A single-storey addition built against the north side of the apsidal end of the western engine house is not of special architectural or historic interest.