Here are four more waterwheel pumps of the Windrush design which turned up during a recent tour of water-related sites in Oxon.
The first post on these things was already too long with 16 sites so I’m putting these here, making 20 examples found to date.
They’re all near Woodstock on the River Glyme or its tributaries, appearing on maps by 1875-1880.
Most of sites here are quite wrecked but there’s enough left to be fairly certain they were by East and Son of Burford.
Pictures are all phone.
1. This has one of the smallest wheels I’ve seen, practically tabletop-sized.
It was almost invisible at first under fallen trees and the collapsed remains of the pumphouse so a bit of clearing up and excavation was required.
A weir diverted water in - there are also the foundations of some tanks on the far side.
The single beam was hinged at the opposite end to the water inlet.
Crank and the top of the pump cylinder - there were too many tree roots to be worth digging it out further.
2. More of the pump house was left in the next one although the roof has largely collapsed.
There are two pumps, with the beams hinged over the water inlet.
The pumps and wheel are encrusted with limescale.
3. Another collapsing pump house with a large chunk of the wall where the water entered missing.
Flow was controlled by a weir upstream and there are two pumps, with the beams hinged opposite to the inlet.
4. The final one is unusual in that it was also a grist mill.
The water came down a leat, now dry, with the left entrance leading to the wheel and a bypass channel on the right.
Looking back at the bypass sluice.
A single beam and pump, hinged opposite the water entrance.
The little mill is installed on a platform over the bypass channel - it may have been powered by the wheel but there’s no sign of a mechanism for this.
Where the water came out.
There could be a few more examples of Windrush-type pumps which I haven’t noticed because they aren’t labelled in any way on maps (not all are), or are outside the general Cotswolds area.
The first post on these things was already too long with 16 sites so I’m putting these here, making 20 examples found to date.
They’re all near Woodstock on the River Glyme or its tributaries, appearing on maps by 1875-1880.
Most of sites here are quite wrecked but there’s enough left to be fairly certain they were by East and Son of Burford.
Pictures are all phone.
1. This has one of the smallest wheels I’ve seen, practically tabletop-sized.
It was almost invisible at first under fallen trees and the collapsed remains of the pumphouse so a bit of clearing up and excavation was required.
A weir diverted water in - there are also the foundations of some tanks on the far side.
The single beam was hinged at the opposite end to the water inlet.
Crank and the top of the pump cylinder - there were too many tree roots to be worth digging it out further.
2. More of the pump house was left in the next one although the roof has largely collapsed.
There are two pumps, with the beams hinged over the water inlet.
The pumps and wheel are encrusted with limescale.
3. Another collapsing pump house with a large chunk of the wall where the water entered missing.
Flow was controlled by a weir upstream and there are two pumps, with the beams hinged opposite to the inlet.
4. The final one is unusual in that it was also a grist mill.
The water came down a leat, now dry, with the left entrance leading to the wheel and a bypass channel on the right.
Looking back at the bypass sluice.
A single beam and pump, hinged opposite the water entrance.
The little mill is installed on a platform over the bypass channel - it may have been powered by the wheel but there’s no sign of a mechanism for this.
Where the water came out.
There could be a few more examples of Windrush-type pumps which I haven’t noticed because they aren’t labelled in any way on maps (not all are), or are outside the general Cotswolds area.
