The Pumping Station

The Pumping Station

An atmospheric railway pumping house built in 1848 for the South Devon Railway by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The building comprises two blocks—a pumping engine house and a boiler house—set at right angles to the railway line at the east end of Totnes station's up platform. Both are constructed in an Italianate style using coursed squared limestone with red sandstone dressings and pitched slate roofs.

The south-east gable end of the engine house features an altered opening to the ground floor and a large arched opening with rusticated voussoirs and a metal-framed window above. A sandstone band at sill level continues through the south gable wall of the attached former boiler house. Four arched openings to the ground floor of the boiler house remain unblocked, though the two left-hand openings are obscured by a modern addition. A central keyed circular opening appears in the gable above. The projecting eaves to the south-east gable ends are supported on brackets mounted on stone corbels.

The south-west elevation of the engine house comprises five bays. Historical photographs indicate these once held five round-headed openings, now blocked and rendered over. The rear north-west gable end of the engine house has a similar opening to its opposing end but is considerably plainer. A tall round-headed opening is largely obscured by later additions and plant, and a circular opening with limestone surrounds sits in the gable. Historical photographs show several contemporary attached structures running at right angles to the boiler house, since demolished, as has the campanile chimney.

Originally, the interior of the engine house formed a single large space to accommodate a beam engine, subsequently subdivided by a mezzanine floor.

History

The South Devon atmospheric railway was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Brunel was appointed to the South Devon Railway in 1844 following Royal Assent for the 52-mile project to construct a railway between Exeter and Plymouth. The Totnes pumping house was never fitted with a steam engine, although boilers were installed. Despite never functioning as part of the atmospheric railway, its construction demonstrates that Brunel intended to extend atmospheric working to Plymouth.

The atmospheric system of traction involved trains being drawn along by a piston in a tube laid between the rails. Air was evacuated from the tube by a system of pumping stations along the route. Eight pumping houses were constructed along the proposed Exeter to Plymouth route to operate the system. The line functioned atmospherically between Exeter and Newton Abbot for a period in 1846–48. However, serious problems arose due to atmospheric leakage, water ingress, and equipment faults, leading to abandonment of the system and its replacement by locomotive power. The South Devon Railway became part of the Great Western Railway in 1878. In 1934 the site, including the pumping house, was purchased by Daws Dairy and incorporated into a milk processing factory, a use which continued until 2007.