It took an embarrassingly long time to realise what this thing was, particularly since I’ve done six other pump houses on the Mersey.
I first looked at the building a couple of years ago as part of a compilation of stuff to explore around the Birkenhead/Wallasey docklands.
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/floating-around-birkenhead-wallasey-2017-2018.114661/
At that time I though it might be a defunct substation since the only bit I could see into - out of shot on the right of the picture below - had some transformers in it.
However browsing old maps again, I noticed the building in this position is clearly labelled as an ‘engine house’.
Since it’s also right next to some dry docks the penny eventually dropped - could this be another pump house?
The only worry was that in more recent maps the label has gone and the outline had changed slightly, suggesting it may have been repurposed and could now be just a pigeon-infested shell.
As it turns out, while there were indeed plenty of pigeons, it wasn’t quite empty.
Background. The graving or dry docks were built between 1864 and 1899, with dock No 1 on the map above being built last.
Docks 1 and 2 were subsequently filled in sometime in the 1980’s.
The pump house of course was there to pump out the water once a ship was inside and also to provide pressurised water for hydraulic dock machinery.
The original pumps would have been steam powered, and a chimney is shown in the 1927 photo below.
The chimney disappeared sometime between 1937 and 1946 according to other old photos, by which time the pumps were presumably electrically powered.
The explore. Some circumspection is required since RN ships are refitted at this end of the West Float, and the entrance to the navy works is just down the road.
There are cameras covering the building and they are monitored.
So I headed in about an hour before sunrise, set ISO to the max and used very feeble torches to avoid lighting up the windows - at least that’s my excuse for why some of the photos are a bit rubbish.
The flat-roofed section on the right of the external above is just empty storage, with two red pressure vessels in one corner.
I’m guessing the pressure tanks may have something to do with the hydraulics - maybe the pneumatic version of the old weighted piston type of accumulator.
The section on the left under the gable roof contains some electrics, a couple of small machines, empty back rooms and office, and junk (old computers, wellies etc.).
The out-of-focus brown machine on the left was some type of pump or compressor with pressurised water lines nearby - I meant to have a closer look at this but forgot.
Not-so-old electrical panel and a small pump.
The business end of the pump house is down half a level in a lean-to section at the front of the building.
There are two identical sets of blue machines, each set containing a big motor, a smaller motor, a valve and some ancillary boxes, arranged as mirror images on either side of the room.
Hydraulically-powered valves.
The valves control the flow in two big pipes in the flooded basement.
The drive shafts from the motors above go down into the water so the pumps must be down there somewhere.
Back upstairs, skinny taps for controlling something from the balcony level...
...and water level gauges, one at each end of the room, moved by floats in standpipes.
A large wall plate in the centre of the room says WORTHINGTON-SIMPSON Ltd ENGINEERS LONDON & NEWARK.
According to Grace’s Guide this name was used from 1917 onwards and the firm certainly made pumps.
Sunrise, so like the vampire I had to vanish.
Finally a roadside view of the rear of the building from about two years ago.
The gatepost on the right acquired a plaque last year, commemorating Thomas Brassey, part of who’s engineering works, now just wasteland, can be seen on the old map above.
This chap was another one of those incredibly hard working Victorian engineers, up there with Brunel or Stephenson, but for some reason much less well known.
I first looked at the building a couple of years ago as part of a compilation of stuff to explore around the Birkenhead/Wallasey docklands.
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/floating-around-birkenhead-wallasey-2017-2018.114661/
At that time I though it might be a defunct substation since the only bit I could see into - out of shot on the right of the picture below - had some transformers in it.
However browsing old maps again, I noticed the building in this position is clearly labelled as an ‘engine house’.
Since it’s also right next to some dry docks the penny eventually dropped - could this be another pump house?
The only worry was that in more recent maps the label has gone and the outline had changed slightly, suggesting it may have been repurposed and could now be just a pigeon-infested shell.
As it turns out, while there were indeed plenty of pigeons, it wasn’t quite empty.
Background. The graving or dry docks were built between 1864 and 1899, with dock No 1 on the map above being built last.
Docks 1 and 2 were subsequently filled in sometime in the 1980’s.
The pump house of course was there to pump out the water once a ship was inside and also to provide pressurised water for hydraulic dock machinery.
The original pumps would have been steam powered, and a chimney is shown in the 1927 photo below.
The chimney disappeared sometime between 1937 and 1946 according to other old photos, by which time the pumps were presumably electrically powered.
The explore. Some circumspection is required since RN ships are refitted at this end of the West Float, and the entrance to the navy works is just down the road.
There are cameras covering the building and they are monitored.
So I headed in about an hour before sunrise, set ISO to the max and used very feeble torches to avoid lighting up the windows - at least that’s my excuse for why some of the photos are a bit rubbish.
The flat-roofed section on the right of the external above is just empty storage, with two red pressure vessels in one corner.
I’m guessing the pressure tanks may have something to do with the hydraulics - maybe the pneumatic version of the old weighted piston type of accumulator.
The section on the left under the gable roof contains some electrics, a couple of small machines, empty back rooms and office, and junk (old computers, wellies etc.).
The out-of-focus brown machine on the left was some type of pump or compressor with pressurised water lines nearby - I meant to have a closer look at this but forgot.
Not-so-old electrical panel and a small pump.
The business end of the pump house is down half a level in a lean-to section at the front of the building.
There are two identical sets of blue machines, each set containing a big motor, a smaller motor, a valve and some ancillary boxes, arranged as mirror images on either side of the room.
Hydraulically-powered valves.
The valves control the flow in two big pipes in the flooded basement.
The drive shafts from the motors above go down into the water so the pumps must be down there somewhere.
Back upstairs, skinny taps for controlling something from the balcony level...
...and water level gauges, one at each end of the room, moved by floats in standpipes.
A large wall plate in the centre of the room says WORTHINGTON-SIMPSON Ltd ENGINEERS LONDON & NEWARK.
According to Grace’s Guide this name was used from 1917 onwards and the firm certainly made pumps.
Sunrise, so like the vampire I had to vanish.
Finally a roadside view of the rear of the building from about two years ago.
The gatepost on the right acquired a plaque last year, commemorating Thomas Brassey, part of who’s engineering works, now just wasteland, can be seen on the old map above.
This chap was another one of those incredibly hard working Victorian engineers, up there with Brunel or Stephenson, but for some reason much less well known.
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