Carrying on with hydraulic ram pumps in counties within striking distance of where I live, a roundup of some remaining pumps in Shropshire.
Two Shropshire rams have appeared in previous reports - here are 11 more, which is probably most of them, ordered according to manufacturer.
a. This was one of the first rams I found when I started deliberately looking for them, almost under a bridge near Shrewsbury.
It’s a Blake (the most common manufacturer in these parts) and had to be dug out of the remains of its collapsed hut.
It may have supplied a house up a hill nearby.
b. Dudmaston Estate used to have several rams (four?) serving both the estate and nearby village from the mid 1920s until the water mains arrived in the mid 1950s.
More history than usual is available for these since they’re on NT property and have been recorded in some detail.
Only two are left, both powered by lakes on the estate, pumping lake water.
One of the lakes - not sure I’d want to drink it though.
Filter/collection tank below the lake with a drive pipe crossing a stream to a Blake in a partially flooded pit containing some dead ducklings.
Another Blake not far away in an overgrown pit with stairs at one end.
c. A ram in a partially flooded quarry near Great Chatwell, presumably pumping to houses in the village.
It was underwater but looked like a Blake from what little I could see.
Local resident.
d. A triple ram near Middleton, with the site marked as a ‘hydraulic pump’ since 1883.
Water was diverted by a weir into a collection/filtration tank.
From here three drive pipes lead to the rams in a brick chamber.
After a bit of weeding.
The plastic piping suggests these may have been working within the last couple of decades, maybe serving the farm up the hill.
The fall involved here is quite small, although according to an old catalogue Blakes can operate with falls as low as 15”.
Rams with such low falls are often quite substantial with wide inlet pipes, depending on how high/far the water has to go, but here they seem to have just used three regular sized ones.
e. The next two are also in rather flat territory, installed in pits in a field near Monkhopton by 1925.
It’s not obvious where the water came from, maybe diverted from a stream which runs nearby, with the waste water going back underground to the stream.
A farm up the hill is a possible destination.
One of them is a Blake.
The other one has a tall torpedo-shaped air tank like a Green and Carter although I didn’t notice a maker’s plate.
f. A ram with a little (cracked) spherical air tank near Caynham.
The only thing written on it was ’SALOP’, meaning that it came from one of several firms known to have made rams in Shropshire.
Another warty local.
g. A ram with a face near Morville.
This apparently ran from about 1930 to about 1960, at one stage filling a pond next to Morville Hall (NT property).
Tigger suggested I look for this one but the first time I passed by I didn’t notice it.
However on a revisit there it was, lying in the water some distance downstream from the weir that probably powered it, with a length of drive pipe still sticking out sideways under the water.
This variety is called a’ Caliban’ and was made by W. H. Bailey, who made all sorts of things including rams.
Calibans don’t seem to be common - this is only the second one I’ve come across.
Like most of the counties for which I have reasonable coverage Shropshire has a significant numbers of rams still left, but also has an unusual number of waterwheel-powered pumps (older and rarer).
There are still a few more sites that I haven’t got round to yet which could have either variety of pump.
Plenty more watery mini-epic in other counties, particularly southern ones where I rarely venture, if anyone is peculiar enough to search it out.
Two Shropshire rams have appeared in previous reports - here are 11 more, which is probably most of them, ordered according to manufacturer.
a. This was one of the first rams I found when I started deliberately looking for them, almost under a bridge near Shrewsbury.
It’s a Blake (the most common manufacturer in these parts) and had to be dug out of the remains of its collapsed hut.
It may have supplied a house up a hill nearby.
b. Dudmaston Estate used to have several rams (four?) serving both the estate and nearby village from the mid 1920s until the water mains arrived in the mid 1950s.
More history than usual is available for these since they’re on NT property and have been recorded in some detail.
Only two are left, both powered by lakes on the estate, pumping lake water.
One of the lakes - not sure I’d want to drink it though.
Filter/collection tank below the lake with a drive pipe crossing a stream to a Blake in a partially flooded pit containing some dead ducklings.
Another Blake not far away in an overgrown pit with stairs at one end.
c. A ram in a partially flooded quarry near Great Chatwell, presumably pumping to houses in the village.
It was underwater but looked like a Blake from what little I could see.
Local resident.
d. A triple ram near Middleton, with the site marked as a ‘hydraulic pump’ since 1883.
Water was diverted by a weir into a collection/filtration tank.
From here three drive pipes lead to the rams in a brick chamber.
After a bit of weeding.
The plastic piping suggests these may have been working within the last couple of decades, maybe serving the farm up the hill.
The fall involved here is quite small, although according to an old catalogue Blakes can operate with falls as low as 15”.
Rams with such low falls are often quite substantial with wide inlet pipes, depending on how high/far the water has to go, but here they seem to have just used three regular sized ones.
e. The next two are also in rather flat territory, installed in pits in a field near Monkhopton by 1925.
It’s not obvious where the water came from, maybe diverted from a stream which runs nearby, with the waste water going back underground to the stream.
A farm up the hill is a possible destination.
One of them is a Blake.
The other one has a tall torpedo-shaped air tank like a Green and Carter although I didn’t notice a maker’s plate.
f. A ram with a little (cracked) spherical air tank near Caynham.
The only thing written on it was ’SALOP’, meaning that it came from one of several firms known to have made rams in Shropshire.
Another warty local.
g. A ram with a face near Morville.
This apparently ran from about 1930 to about 1960, at one stage filling a pond next to Morville Hall (NT property).
Tigger suggested I look for this one but the first time I passed by I didn’t notice it.
However on a revisit there it was, lying in the water some distance downstream from the weir that probably powered it, with a length of drive pipe still sticking out sideways under the water.
This variety is called a’ Caliban’ and was made by W. H. Bailey, who made all sorts of things including rams.
Calibans don’t seem to be common - this is only the second one I’ve come across.
Like most of the counties for which I have reasonable coverage Shropshire has a significant numbers of rams still left, but also has an unusual number of waterwheel-powered pumps (older and rarer).
There are still a few more sites that I haven’t got round to yet which could have either variety of pump.
Plenty more watery mini-epic in other counties, particularly southern ones where I rarely venture, if anyone is peculiar enough to search it out.
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