Introduction
Me and @JakeV50 headed out to Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire to look at some more pump houses. Unfortunately, the day was full of disappointments once again but we did come across a couple of nice surprises. This report covers an Engine House which I found on old OS maps, and a pump house/wind pump set up which Jake found and covered in his report back in December last year.
Grimsthorpe Engine House
The engine house is situated to the south of Bishopshall Wood between the villages of Swinstead and Grimsthorpe. The structure is situated in a small pocket of woodland near a stream which appears to run towards a large water body near to Grimsthorpe Castle.
The structure itself is primarily constructed of brick and stone, with a slate roof which is in poor condition. The Engine House is split into two sections, one section is used as a large sump or well which I believe captured water from a natural spring, this then fed a pump located in the other section. This would’ve been powered by a small stationary engine, most likely something like a Lister Diesel unit. The water was pumped from here to a reservoir to the west of Grimsthorpe castle. The purpose of the engine house, according to the borehole record, was to serve the village of Grimsthorpe. At the time of the borehole survey in 1951, the well & pump was capable of delivering around 62,000 gallons of water to the village per day.
There is no other information online regarding this particular setup, I would imagine this was built in the early 1900s and was in operation until around the mid-20th Century as this was around the time when mains water arrived in many of these rural parts.
The explore was easy enough, we parked up in the village of Swinstead and veered off a public footpath across some fields towards the engine house. Took a few shots, got muddy, got a hole in my trousers, then headed off to the next one.
It was hard to get any decent externals here because of the trees:
The well/sump section of the structure:
Heading inside the pumping section of the building, we quickly realised the engine had sadly been removed. There was only a small plinth for the engine hence my assumptions of it being just a small Lister engine or something similar.
The pump in situ looks to be a 3-cylinder reciprocating ram pump with positive displacement (thanks to @mingerocket for the info on this, I didn’t have a clue!). The pump is incomplete with missing pistons, this is likely because these were valuable as they may have contained brass or gunmetal.
In the picture above, you can see the small plinth the engine would’ve sat on to the right of the image.
Top-down view of the pump setup:
A few other angles of the pump:
The pulley system was nice too, and it was great to see the belt still in tact:
Cumberland Field Pump House
Appearing on the 1888 - 1913 Six Inch series OS Map, this site boasts a very old wind pump designed and built by Duke and Ockenden, and a small dilapidated shed featuring a Climax No. 2 Pump powered by a 1.5HP Lister D stationary engine. I am guessing the Climax & Lister setup replaced the original Wind Pump and the Wind Pump fell out of use long before the later setup.
This one really is in the middle of nowhere and me and Jake had to stomp across some very muddy fields, but it was worth it in the end. I even climbed the ladder up the Wind Pump, it was a bit dodgy though!
Onto the photos, starting off with the Wind Pump. I’ve never seen one of these up close so it was certainly something different!
An overview of the site:
The base of the Wind Pump had some old company branding. This was a Dando Wind Pump manufactured by Duke and Ockenden.
Moving on to its internal combustion powered replacement. Another in tact belt, always good to see:
The air ballast for the Climax No. 2 pump
Whilst on the subject of Climax pumps, it is a similar set-up to the one at Booter’s Hall in Norfolk which I covered last year. Climax pumps were manufactured by Thomas & Son Ltd. which were based in Worcester. Funnily enough they manufactured old Windmills too.
A few detail shots to conclude:
Thanks for looking!
Me and @JakeV50 headed out to Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire to look at some more pump houses. Unfortunately, the day was full of disappointments once again but we did come across a couple of nice surprises. This report covers an Engine House which I found on old OS maps, and a pump house/wind pump set up which Jake found and covered in his report back in December last year.
Grimsthorpe Engine House
The engine house is situated to the south of Bishopshall Wood between the villages of Swinstead and Grimsthorpe. The structure is situated in a small pocket of woodland near a stream which appears to run towards a large water body near to Grimsthorpe Castle.
The structure itself is primarily constructed of brick and stone, with a slate roof which is in poor condition. The Engine House is split into two sections, one section is used as a large sump or well which I believe captured water from a natural spring, this then fed a pump located in the other section. This would’ve been powered by a small stationary engine, most likely something like a Lister Diesel unit. The water was pumped from here to a reservoir to the west of Grimsthorpe castle. The purpose of the engine house, according to the borehole record, was to serve the village of Grimsthorpe. At the time of the borehole survey in 1951, the well & pump was capable of delivering around 62,000 gallons of water to the village per day.
There is no other information online regarding this particular setup, I would imagine this was built in the early 1900s and was in operation until around the mid-20th Century as this was around the time when mains water arrived in many of these rural parts.
The explore was easy enough, we parked up in the village of Swinstead and veered off a public footpath across some fields towards the engine house. Took a few shots, got muddy, got a hole in my trousers, then headed off to the next one.
It was hard to get any decent externals here because of the trees:
The well/sump section of the structure:
Heading inside the pumping section of the building, we quickly realised the engine had sadly been removed. There was only a small plinth for the engine hence my assumptions of it being just a small Lister engine or something similar.
The pump in situ looks to be a 3-cylinder reciprocating ram pump with positive displacement (thanks to @mingerocket for the info on this, I didn’t have a clue!). The pump is incomplete with missing pistons, this is likely because these were valuable as they may have contained brass or gunmetal.
In the picture above, you can see the small plinth the engine would’ve sat on to the right of the image.
Top-down view of the pump setup:
A few other angles of the pump:
The pulley system was nice too, and it was great to see the belt still in tact:
Cumberland Field Pump House
Appearing on the 1888 - 1913 Six Inch series OS Map, this site boasts a very old wind pump designed and built by Duke and Ockenden, and a small dilapidated shed featuring a Climax No. 2 Pump powered by a 1.5HP Lister D stationary engine. I am guessing the Climax & Lister setup replaced the original Wind Pump and the Wind Pump fell out of use long before the later setup.
This one really is in the middle of nowhere and me and Jake had to stomp across some very muddy fields, but it was worth it in the end. I even climbed the ladder up the Wind Pump, it was a bit dodgy though!
Onto the photos, starting off with the Wind Pump. I’ve never seen one of these up close so it was certainly something different!
An overview of the site:
The base of the Wind Pump had some old company branding. This was a Dando Wind Pump manufactured by Duke and Ockenden.
Moving on to its internal combustion powered replacement. Another in tact belt, always good to see:
The air ballast for the Climax No. 2 pump
Whilst on the subject of Climax pumps, it is a similar set-up to the one at Booter’s Hall in Norfolk which I covered last year. Climax pumps were manufactured by Thomas & Son Ltd. which were based in Worcester. Funnily enough they manufactured old Windmills too.
A few detail shots to conclude:
Thanks for looking!
