New Spring Water Pumping Station, Engine House And Pump Masters House

The building comprises a water pumping station, an engine house, and a pump master’s house, dating from 1906. Designed by George F. Deacon, chief engineer to the Biggleswade Water Board, it is built of snecked red sandstone ashlar with a hipped clay tile roof. The engine house has a rectangular plan, while the pump master’s house has a double-depth plan. The building is executed in an Arts and Crafts style.

The engine house is a single-storey structure with a pitched roof, containing interior pumps. A projecting central porch features rusticated lower courses, a semi-circular arched entrance with a drip mould and keystone, above which are two square windows with metal geometric tracery. Projecting cornices support two square turrets with deeply recessed arched windows and metal geometric tracery, framing a shallow gable inscribed “BWB/1906”. The north and south elevations both display large, central, semi-circular three-light windows flanked by side windows with cambered heads, all with glazing bars. A late 20th-century brick filter house is attached to the rear and is not of special interest. Walls link the engine house to the pump master’s house.

The pump master’s house is two storeys and an attic, with a five-window front. It has a string course, front square corner towers, and a pyramidal roof. The ground floor has a deeply recessed entrance porch to the right, with a short column above a wall, and three rectangular lights to the left with leaded glazing bars, keystones, and quoins. Matching windows are present on the first floor, with a group of three to the left and a pair above the entrance. A five-light flat-headed dormer is visible.

The interior of the engine house contains pumps and glazed brick walls. The water was pumped from boreholes and treated to remove iron using air injection and pressure filters, with chlorine subsequently added and pumped to a water tower and covered reservoir at Toplers Hill. Plaques identify the water board and details of the well. The engine house features cast iron trusses with curved braces, as well as a crane by Vaughan Crane Co. of Manchester. The pump master’s house contains a full-height, open well stair with slender, turned balusters and flared, chamfered newels, along with some cast iron fireplaces exhibiting Arts Nouveau detail. The building formerly contained diesel-powered pumps, which have now been replaced with electric ones. A contemporary entrance wall and piers are listed separately.