On the banks of the River Trent sits this little pumphouse. There is nothing obvious to give away what it may have supplied water to or to whom it may have belonged.
The pump (Sigma SSP split case centrifugal pump), various valves, flow totaliser and other equipment are still in place, in fact the only thing missing is the electric motor. Judging by the motor sized hole that's been cut in the block work I'm going to guess that it's been weighed in for scrap. From the size of the cables it would have been a decent motor too.
The pump drew water from the river Trent so obviously it wasn't for drinking water but what could it have been used for?
It took me ages to find any info on this one - here we go.
Oddly enough, the only place I found any info was in a publication "For the love of lettuce" The story goes, that this land and the land to the north which is now a garden center, was owned by a company named "Samuel Jackson's growers". This company grew vegetables, mainly lettuce.
The garden center stands where Samuel Jackson's Market Garden once stood and is still owned by the Jackson family. A passage in the publication details how the company took water from brooks, streams and rivers at their various sites around Derbyshire. This water was a free source of irrigation until Severn Trent (the local water authority) became aware of this and made Jackson's install water meters / totalisers on the pump equipment. The company traded until the late 1980s / early 1990s until supermarket price demands and competition made the venture less profitable.
At least the little garden center
Remains as a reminder of the once large scale venture.
The pictures
The pump (Sigma SSP split case centrifugal pump), various valves, flow totaliser and other equipment are still in place, in fact the only thing missing is the electric motor. Judging by the motor sized hole that's been cut in the block work I'm going to guess that it's been weighed in for scrap. From the size of the cables it would have been a decent motor too.
The pump drew water from the river Trent so obviously it wasn't for drinking water but what could it have been used for?
It took me ages to find any info on this one - here we go.
Oddly enough, the only place I found any info was in a publication "For the love of lettuce" The story goes, that this land and the land to the north which is now a garden center, was owned by a company named "Samuel Jackson's growers". This company grew vegetables, mainly lettuce.
The garden center stands where Samuel Jackson's Market Garden once stood and is still owned by the Jackson family. A passage in the publication details how the company took water from brooks, streams and rivers at their various sites around Derbyshire. This water was a free source of irrigation until Severn Trent (the local water authority) became aware of this and made Jackson's install water meters / totalisers on the pump equipment. The company traded until the late 1980s / early 1990s until supermarket price demands and competition made the venture less profitable.
At least the little garden center
Remains as a reminder of the once large scale venture.
The pictures
