Introduction
Another gem hidden away in the depths of the Norfolk countryside discovered whilst trawling through both old and modern maps. Being only a 40-minute drive away, I decided to head off to see what I could find, and it’s certainly a nice one with lots of see! Visited with @JakeV50.
Information & History
There is no specific information about this particular site online but I did manage to dig out an old borehole record for the pump house. The borehole record states that this pump house supplied Booter’s Hall Farm with water from a spring within Newell’s Head plantation. Water was pumped from the spring with the help of two hydraulic ram pumps set slightly below ground level in a square building with a corrugated roof. A 1960 site visit suggests that around 6,500 gallons of water was able to be pumped per hour.
There are three sections of the site. I would imagine the oldest part of the site is the hydraulic ram house. Two large hydraulic rams supplied by John Blake Engineers Ltd are still in situ inside the building. The next part of the site is a long pump house building with one section containing a lovely Lister CS oil engine producing 5 horsepower. This powered a Climax No. 3 pump which I believe is of the reciprocating type. These Climax series pumps were manufactured by Worcester-based Thomas & Son Ltd.
The engine room of the building is separated from the other section which contains the remains of what I think is a water wheel that would’ve powered the Climax pump before the later installation of the engine. To the far end of the building, there is a modern centrifugal pump which appears disused. Near to this pump is a couple of water tanks dated 1997 which suggests the pump house was in use perhaps into the 2000s. This part of the building is in a very dilapidated state due to a tree falling onto the roof but I love the mix of old and modern here.
The Explore
We initially did a quick evening recce of this pump house and a few others to see if they were still there before dedicating a day visiting and photographing them properly. This one was a bit of a pain in the arse to get to and was very boggy. On the first visit I forgot to bring wellies and sank in the mud a number of times and ruined my trainers. When revisiting during the day I made sure I remembered the wellies. On the way back we came across an easier way through the woods via a track leading close to the pump house, I assume this would’ve been used for vehicular access. We spent quite a while getting photos here as we had to do some interesting acrobatics around the equipment trying to get the angles we wanted, but it was worth it in the end!
Photos
Starting off with an external of the pump house followed by the hydraulic ram house:
I descended down into the ram house to start with and had to balance myself on the ladder and the tripod at the bottom, I don’t know how I managed to stay dry doing this!
I then noticed the nameplates were still attached to these pumps, but had to grab a long stick to take off some leaves that were covering the plate on the first pump:
Moving on to the main pump house itself, this is the room with the Lister engine and Climax pump:
A closer look at the engine:
Even though it was fairly dark inside, the light coming in from the right window worked quite well:
There were a few other bits and pieces lying around including some old cans of oil:
Moving onto the next section of the pump house. As mentioned at the beginning this was in poor condition due to the tree falling slap bang onto the roof. In the pic below you can see the remains of the old water wheel and how badly the roof has collapsed:
Just behind this was a lovely little sluice gate in addition to the modern electric pump complete with the two tanks:
Some pipework which took water from the ram house into the pump house:
One more external before heading back:
Thanks for looking!
Another gem hidden away in the depths of the Norfolk countryside discovered whilst trawling through both old and modern maps. Being only a 40-minute drive away, I decided to head off to see what I could find, and it’s certainly a nice one with lots of see! Visited with @JakeV50.
Information & History
There is no specific information about this particular site online but I did manage to dig out an old borehole record for the pump house. The borehole record states that this pump house supplied Booter’s Hall Farm with water from a spring within Newell’s Head plantation. Water was pumped from the spring with the help of two hydraulic ram pumps set slightly below ground level in a square building with a corrugated roof. A 1960 site visit suggests that around 6,500 gallons of water was able to be pumped per hour.
There are three sections of the site. I would imagine the oldest part of the site is the hydraulic ram house. Two large hydraulic rams supplied by John Blake Engineers Ltd are still in situ inside the building. The next part of the site is a long pump house building with one section containing a lovely Lister CS oil engine producing 5 horsepower. This powered a Climax No. 3 pump which I believe is of the reciprocating type. These Climax series pumps were manufactured by Worcester-based Thomas & Son Ltd.
The engine room of the building is separated from the other section which contains the remains of what I think is a water wheel that would’ve powered the Climax pump before the later installation of the engine. To the far end of the building, there is a modern centrifugal pump which appears disused. Near to this pump is a couple of water tanks dated 1997 which suggests the pump house was in use perhaps into the 2000s. This part of the building is in a very dilapidated state due to a tree falling onto the roof but I love the mix of old and modern here.
The Explore
We initially did a quick evening recce of this pump house and a few others to see if they were still there before dedicating a day visiting and photographing them properly. This one was a bit of a pain in the arse to get to and was very boggy. On the first visit I forgot to bring wellies and sank in the mud a number of times and ruined my trainers. When revisiting during the day I made sure I remembered the wellies. On the way back we came across an easier way through the woods via a track leading close to the pump house, I assume this would’ve been used for vehicular access. We spent quite a while getting photos here as we had to do some interesting acrobatics around the equipment trying to get the angles we wanted, but it was worth it in the end!
Photos
Starting off with an external of the pump house followed by the hydraulic ram house:
I descended down into the ram house to start with and had to balance myself on the ladder and the tripod at the bottom, I don’t know how I managed to stay dry doing this!
I then noticed the nameplates were still attached to these pumps, but had to grab a long stick to take off some leaves that were covering the plate on the first pump:
Moving on to the main pump house itself, this is the room with the Lister engine and Climax pump:
A closer look at the engine:
Even though it was fairly dark inside, the light coming in from the right window worked quite well:
There were a few other bits and pieces lying around including some old cans of oil:
Moving onto the next section of the pump house. As mentioned at the beginning this was in poor condition due to the tree falling slap bang onto the roof. In the pic below you can see the remains of the old water wheel and how badly the roof has collapsed:
Just behind this was a lovely little sluice gate in addition to the modern electric pump complete with the two tanks:
Some pipework which took water from the ram house into the pump house:
One more external before heading back:
Thanks for looking!
