Firepool Pumping Station

Firepool Pumping Station is located on Canal Road in Taunton and dates back to the early 1840s. The site originally featured two limekilns, constructed from limestone rubble with buttresses and keyed brick arches for two chambers. In 1866, a hot air engine house was added, followed by a water tank in 1877, which was later remodeled in 1889 to serve as a pumping station for the Bristol and Exeter Railway.

The limekilns are complemented by the main block, which is built of English bond red brick with blue brick string and impost courses, topped with hipped slate roofs and brick lateral stacks on the flanking ranges. The wrought-iron water tank has a segmental corrugated iron roof. The main block, which sits atop the limekilns, is two storeys high and features segmental-arched windows arranged in a four-window range, with recessed segmental-arched bays and flanking pilasters. The other elevations are designed in a similar manner.

To the left of the front is a lower three-storey one-bay block with segmental-arched windows and a lean-to roof over a cart bay. To the right is a similar one-storey bay that sits on top of the limekiln, with an entrance at the rear. Although the interior was not inspected, it is noted to include two sets of Pearn three throw engines from the building's time as a pumping station, which continued until the 1960s. The limekilns were strategically built where the Bridgewater and Taunton Canal (1827) and the Grand Union Canal (1838) met the river Tone, on a coal and culm wharf established after the Bristol and Exeter Railway arrived in 1842. Additional water was required to service the station at Taunton, and the brick for the 1860s building was supplied by William Thomas of Poole, West Buckland.