PLUTO power station in the pavilion at Browns golf course

A timber golf pavilion of 1936, extended and fitted with PLUTO related plant in around 1944.

MATERIALS: timber-framed and clad in feather-edged elm board. Felt battened roof, painted wooden windows, and power generating plant.

PLAN: a linear range of three connected plant rooms facing east with a projection to the north-west corner at the rear. To the west and south there are two sets of water tanks.

EXTERIOR: the east facing principal elevation of the timber pavilion is single-storey and has a double-gabled front with small central inset verandah, which has a single timber panelled door and eye-level leaded-light casement windows to either side. Most of the windows are timber casements, with either 12 or 15 panes. The building is faced with feather-edged boarding, and the roof is pitched over the gables, and flat over extensions to the north and west. The water drums are cylindrical and made of corrugated iron. They stand on a concrete plinth and are around 2m high and 1m in diameter. There are three to the west and two to the south. Each set is fed by an exhaust pipe which exits the building and then enters the drums.

INTERIOR: there are three rooms; a central room, an extended room containing the large engine to the north, and a room containing the smaller engine to the south. The interior is utilitarian but has some plastered walls. The southern room has terracotta floor tiles, which are partially covered by the later concrete engine base. The timber roof structure is exposed and shows evidence of extension and re-enforcement. The plant consists of two large Ruston engines, the largest of which has an approximately 12.5in diameter bore, producing around 90 horsepower (hp). This engine drove two adjacent Metropolitan Vickers DC generators of 16-25kW. The smaller Ruston engine has an 8in bore, producing around 40hp, and drove a single 25kW generator. In the central room there is also a fourth generator rated at 5.7 kW, a water pump, and a twin-cylinder Lister engine. The plant has an associated grey-metal power-board with control switches and dials, which is adjacent to two freestanding regulators for controlling the electrical power supplied from the pavilion.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 17/01/2019