Engine House, Boiler House and Chimney at Clevedon Pumping Station

Engine house, boiler house and chimney. 1901. Designed by James Mansergh, engineer and Henry Dare Bryan, architect, for the Clevedon Waterworks Company.

MATERIALS: constructed of squared and coursed Pennant rubble stone with ashlar dressings and a plain clay tile roof.

PLAN: parallel engine house and boiler house. The chimney stack is connected to the north side of the boiler house by an inspection chamber.

EXTERIOR: it is built in the Domestic Revival style with some Free Renaissance influences. The principal elevation (south) of the engine house is arranged as three bays, and the central bay is set forward and has a segmental-pedimented gable. The four-centred arched doorway, with a pair of timber doors with iron door furniture, has foliate carvings to the spandrels and scroll carvings to the curved keystone which supports the entablature above surmounted by a cartouche with the Clevedon Waterworks Company coat of arms. Above is a four-light stone mullion window. The outer bays have six-light mullion and transom windows. To the corners are battered diagonal buttresses surmounted by consoles. The gable ends of both the engine house and boiler house have coped verges terminating in decorative stone finials. To each side of the engine house is a twelve-light stone mullion and transom window, with a keyed oculus between ashlar bands in the gable above. To the ridge of the roof is a timber lantern surmounted by an octagonal domed cupola with louvered sides and a weather vane. The boiler house is lower and wider than the engine house, and its west end has two round-headed carriageways with a four-light mullion window above. The rear elevation has four, three-light mullion windows, and to the ridge line is a timber roof lantern with louvered sides. The east elevation of the boiler house, which extends to the east, has two nine-light mullion and transom windows, with a four-light mullion window above. To its south elevation is a single doorway with ashlar surround and a three-light mullion window above. At the left-hand end of the rear elevation is a single-storey inspection chamber attached to the chimney stack. The stack is set on a square base, and rises as an octagonal shaft above moulded ashlar panels and corner consoles. The corbelled-out decorative top has corner water spouts and an octagonal, ashlar top section.

INTERIOR: within the engine house is a painted brick arch over the doorway, and side stone pilasters, with corbelled capitals, to support the gantry crane. The glazed bricks, which continue around the room to dado height, have been painted. The engine has been removed and the building now contains electric pumps and modern control equipment. The roof comprises arch-braced Queen-post, double-collar and tie-beam timber trusses with struts and cusped heads to the upper collar. The boilers have been removed from the boiler house which also now houses modern control equipment. A partition wall has been inserted at the east end.