Water Turbine House, Sutton Poyntz Pumping Station

A water turbine house and attached coal store of a water pumping station, now partly company museum. Built 1856-57 and 1869 respectively, designed by Thomas Hawksley for the Weymouth Waterworks Company.

MATERIALS: constructed of cut and squared Portland stone with ashlar dressings under a hipped slate roof with a red brick chimney. The attached coal store is built of matching materials and has a monopitch roof which is hipped at the front.

PLAN: T-shaped on plan, comprising the rectangular turbine house which was built in two phases in 1856 and 1857, and an attached coal store to the east side.

EXTERIOR: the principal elevation of the turbine house faces south and has a central round-arched entrance with a pair of timber panelled doors and a fanlight over. The left return has two sash windows under ashlar lintels and sills, and there is one matching window to the rear. The former coal store has timber double doors to the front (south) elevation.

INTERIOR: it is divided into two rooms which each originally housed a turbine pump. Each room has a corner fireplace with a plain surround, stone-flagged floor and coving. The front (south) room contains a triplex ram pump of 1928 which has been brought in from elsewhere for display purposes. The room beyond retains a turbine-driven ram pump of 1857 and manufactured by D Cook & Co. of Glasgow. Above the turbine chamber is a cast-iron frame and bevelled gear wheels; the teeth of the gear wheels were originally wooden but cast-iron wheels were substituted. The frame is surmounted by a meter or counter which was added in 1858 to record abstraction rates. The interior of the coal store was not inspected (2014).

Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 ('the Act') it is declared that the 1928 ram pump, brought from elsewhere, is not of special architectural or historic interest.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURE: the wheelpit of the late-C18 watermill remains, and is situated at the north-east corner of the turbine house.