Water wheel pumps are one of the oldest type of mechanised pump, the consequence being that there is often little left.
This is a collection of C-listers from my wreckage folder - sites which have recognisable wheel remains but no pump.
These were mostly found from old Ordnance Survey maps where they’re usually called ‘hydraulic pump’ or ‘pump house’ or similar, or not labelled at all.
The label ‘water wheel’ is actually used, just very rarely - here’s an example outside Doncaster where only the wheel pit was discernible.
Sites are ordered north to south, photos are mostly phone.
Sprotbrough, Yorkshire (ca 1700 with later modifications)
This is a listed monument near Sprotbrough locks, originally built to power a fountain at Sprotbrough Hall.
The owner had apparently seen the (original) Chatsworth fountain and wanted one too: Sprotbrough Pumping Engine
Not much left - the waterways, axle for the wheel and some pump-related fragments.
Miller’s Dale, Derbyshire (1878 - 1887).
This setup apparently pumped spring water to lead mines on the other side of the River Wye, with water diverted by a weir.
The pump used to be beside a footpath which runs past the wheel.
Ellerton, Shropshire (before 1879)
At the bottom of someone’s garden, this may have been installed by W & G Massey of Newport.
Massey has featured before in this series and there’s a record of a Massey wheel pump being installed for Ellerton Hall in 1849.
Munslow, Shropshire (before 1883)
Millichope Park is listed on a heritage website as having a water-powered generator in the gardens to supply the house.
The plinth for whatever the wheel powered and the ruined structure next to the weir, said to be a generator house although from the remains it it looks more like a pump house.
Pembridge.1, Herefordshire (before 1885)
Shown as a pump house powered by a leat from a brook, the only things here were the remains of a wheel and the well it pumped from.
Pembridge.2, Herefordshire (1860s)
A ram is marked on maps, appearing between 1902 and 1927, but that had gone, replaced with an electric pump.
Immediately next door was a large iron water wheel hiding in the hedge.
This was something of a puzzle since it’s not marked and seemed to have been restored, but not in any functional way since the rim gear on the wheel is missing.
I eventually found a plaque in the undergrowth which lead to the history.
It wasn’t a pump at all - the wheel drove machinery in the farm next door by a long rotating shaft which went under the intervening road.
I don’t know why it’s called the Lady Antonia, maybe a reference to the more famous one at Laxey in the Isle of Man.
The inlet chamber has a strainer as if water was taken from here for something else, maybe the ram.
Llangrove, Herefordshire (before 1887?)
A ram is shown at this location, and one is still there, thumping away.
However there was also a water wheel pump which may have predated the ram, although it’s not marked on maps.
The hut where the wheel lived is empty but has holes in the walls for supports and a large pipe at roof level where the water came in from a pond behind.
The skeleton of the wheel has been dumped outside.
The sort of stuff above is more industrial archeology than the usual fare on this website - still, you won’t find any other pictures for most of them, so worth recording once.
This is a collection of C-listers from my wreckage folder - sites which have recognisable wheel remains but no pump.
These were mostly found from old Ordnance Survey maps where they’re usually called ‘hydraulic pump’ or ‘pump house’ or similar, or not labelled at all.
The label ‘water wheel’ is actually used, just very rarely - here’s an example outside Doncaster where only the wheel pit was discernible.
Sites are ordered north to south, photos are mostly phone.
Sprotbrough, Yorkshire (ca 1700 with later modifications)
This is a listed monument near Sprotbrough locks, originally built to power a fountain at Sprotbrough Hall.
The owner had apparently seen the (original) Chatsworth fountain and wanted one too: Sprotbrough Pumping Engine
Not much left - the waterways, axle for the wheel and some pump-related fragments.
Miller’s Dale, Derbyshire (1878 - 1887).
This setup apparently pumped spring water to lead mines on the other side of the River Wye, with water diverted by a weir.
The pump used to be beside a footpath which runs past the wheel.
Ellerton, Shropshire (before 1879)
At the bottom of someone’s garden, this may have been installed by W & G Massey of Newport.
Massey has featured before in this series and there’s a record of a Massey wheel pump being installed for Ellerton Hall in 1849.
Munslow, Shropshire (before 1883)
Millichope Park is listed on a heritage website as having a water-powered generator in the gardens to supply the house.
The plinth for whatever the wheel powered and the ruined structure next to the weir, said to be a generator house although from the remains it it looks more like a pump house.
Pembridge.1, Herefordshire (before 1885)
Shown as a pump house powered by a leat from a brook, the only things here were the remains of a wheel and the well it pumped from.
Pembridge.2, Herefordshire (1860s)
A ram is marked on maps, appearing between 1902 and 1927, but that had gone, replaced with an electric pump.
Immediately next door was a large iron water wheel hiding in the hedge.
This was something of a puzzle since it’s not marked and seemed to have been restored, but not in any functional way since the rim gear on the wheel is missing.
I eventually found a plaque in the undergrowth which lead to the history.
It wasn’t a pump at all - the wheel drove machinery in the farm next door by a long rotating shaft which went under the intervening road.
I don’t know why it’s called the Lady Antonia, maybe a reference to the more famous one at Laxey in the Isle of Man.
The inlet chamber has a strainer as if water was taken from here for something else, maybe the ram.
Llangrove, Herefordshire (before 1887?)
A ram is shown at this location, and one is still there, thumping away.
However there was also a water wheel pump which may have predated the ram, although it’s not marked on maps.
The hut where the wheel lived is empty but has holes in the walls for supports and a large pipe at roof level where the water came in from a pond behind.
The skeleton of the wheel has been dumped outside.
The sort of stuff above is more industrial archeology than the usual fare on this website - still, you won’t find any other pictures for most of them, so worth recording once.
