Tringford Pumping Station

Tringford Pumping Station is a water pumping station built to fill the Tring summit level of the canal from reservoirs. It was erected in 1816-17 at a location determined by Mr Telford, and was the second pumping station on the Wendover feeder arm. It originally housed a Boulton and Watt steam engine, though a plaque dating the engine to 1803 is incorrect.

The station was extended between 1836 and 1838 when it was adapted as a single centralised pumping station with a second steam engine (known as the 'York' engine) added. This second engine was removed in 1913. A boiler house was added on the north side in the mid-19th century, and a diesel engine house dated 1911 was constructed in the north-east angle. The beam engine was removed and the engine house reduced in height in 1927, marked by a plaque over the door dated '1803/1927'.

The original engine-and-pumphouse is built of red brick with brown brick extensions and uniform sandstone dressings. The pumphouse runs parallel to the canal with outflow ponds between. It features four round-headed large windows with keystones and impost blocks, and has slated pitched roofs. The building still functions with long headings from reservoirs concentrating on three deep brick wells in the pumphouse. Water is now pumped by electric pumps up to the level of the canal arm.

The boiler house extends along much of the north side of the pumphouse. It is constructed of brown brick with blue brick offset to the plinth and segmental arches to openings. Wide-span 19th-century king-post timber trusses span from corbels on the rear wall of the pumphouse to piers in the north wall. The structure was designed for two boilers. Underfloor air intakes are provided by a small round-headed external opening low down in the middle of the north wall, which is 22½ inches thick. The west gable end has two high double doors and two large windows with cast iron framed small-pane frames. A toothed brick band runs along the corbelled verge, and the north side has five bays with panelling and two similar windows.

The diesel engine house is built of yellow brick with red brick dressings and a canted corner in the north-east angle. It has two tall round-headed windows and a door, with small-paned windows at ground level. The interior is faced in glazed brick with a dado and raised platform that formerly supported 100 horsepower and 50 horsepower diesel engines.

The pumphouse is entered by a round-headed double doorway on the north side, in a section projecting to the west of the boiler house. The side walls are 27 inches thick and a cross wall 5 feet thick was built to support the 24-foot-long cast iron beam of the pumping engine. The original pumping engine, erected in 1817-18, had a 49½ inch diameter cylinder and an 8-foot stroke. The doorway is flanked by two tall Tuscan cast iron columns from the engine frame, topped by balls from the superstructure. An ornamental cast iron trestle from the valve assembly is built into the apex of the west gable. Photographs and a plaque record the engine in use and during its removal.

An earlier pumping station at Whitehouses, erected in 1802 and drawing from Wilstone No. 1 Reservoir, was superceded by Tringford and subsequently demolished. Wilstone Reservoir was heightened in 1811 and 1827 and extended in 1835 (No. 2) and 1839 (No. 3). By that time it had been supplemented by Marsworth Reservoir (1806), Tringford Reservoir (1814), and Startops End Reservoir (1815). These reservoirs supply the summit level of the main line of the canal, which opened in 1799 as the Grand Junction Canal. The Wendover Arm opened the same year, was closed to commercial traffic in 1896, and a long stretch beyond the pumping station has since been filled in.