real time web analytics
Report - - Rural Water Wheel Pumps (Shropshire, 2019 - 2021) | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Rural Water Wheel Pumps (Shropshire, 2019 - 2021)

Hide this ad by donating or subscribing !

urbanchemist

28DL Regular User
Regular User
Before the arrival of the water mains rural houses and farms had to pump their own water.


These pumps were sometimes water-powered themselves and come in two varieties - those driven by water wheels and the ’hydraulic ram’ type worked by hydraulic shock.

I may do a post on the ram ones later - this effort lists some of the water wheel sort I found in Shropshire while out looking at watermills (usually corn mills).


Water wheel pumps are of course nothing new and have been used for centuries, for example in the mining industry.

However history on the little rural pumps we’re talking about here can be hard to find - even the manufacturers can be obscure.

The best that can be done is usually an approximate date from when they first appeared on old maps along with an idea of the buildings they served - typically a farm or large house.


Pictures are a mixture of phone and camera and were taken primarily to show how the things worked rather than some exercise in derp photography.


First up, a very derelict but quite large one on the River Meese, built sometime before 1880.

51278315181_200fb643f9_h.jpg


The slightly clumsy looking iron double wheel made of bolted together segments.

51279033869_f0ee3d3130_h.jpg


Remains of the slanting sliding hatch sluice - the water level must have been higher in the past.

51277564662_8a09f275f7_h.jpg


Transmission.

51279033814_7acfd35cab_h.jpg


Crank working the pistons/rams, which might still be there down in the mud.

I haven’t found any information about W & G Massey of Newport (Shropshire) other than they made some water-powered machinery.

51277564617_0dbb6a4a17_h.jpg


There’s a little ‘engine house’ shown on a 1924 map further downstream which may have been the successor to this pump, but it was empty.

51279033724_2987b7d270_h.jpg




The next is one near Newport, present by 1880.

The building is currently used to store agrochemicals, but it used to be a pump house with an internal water wheel worked by a stream going under the building on the left.

51278315061_085a452925_h.jpg


Sluice hidden in the undergrowth.

51278481823_809d27f856_h.jpg


Waterwheel from various angles.

51277564532_291feaa6db_h.jpg




51279033589_c915edb049_h.jpg




51278481728_194c7d5fc7_h.jpg


The wheel worked a pump on the other side of the wall, again made by Massey of Newport.

This one is currently functioning as a table but looks quite complete.

51279334970_86aa40d994_h.jpg




51278314926_e8caac48d7_h.jpg




51279334905_aedf8069e1_h.jpg




Next two huts in field a few miles north.

The one on the left contains a diesel-powered pump, ‘not of special interest’ as Historic England would say, and probably still used.

The other, present by 1921, has a little wheel with two inlet pipes for water and two pump chambers on one side.

No maker’s plate that I noticed.

51279334865_4991dc164c_h.jpg




51278481508_70f144c762_h.jpg




51279033344_13f27a603d_h.jpg




51277564322_1d4da4cf79_h.jpg




51278314726_e58613bc52_h.jpg




51278481433_dbfc79a9f8_h.jpg




Finally a little pump house near Shrewsbury, present by 1901.

51278481408_7014c3f6e0_h.jpg


The weir directed water through the sluice box...

51279033244_bae94c323b_b.jpg


...to turn another bijou wheel.

The mechanism has three pump chambers (two on one side and one on the other) working off the same eccentric and looks complete.

51279033214_773a14e920_h.jpg




51279334685_f29255b208_h.jpg




51279334660_75568a2620_h.jpg


It was made by W H Smith of Whitchurch who featured in a previous post on water pumps in the Harthill area of Cheshire.

Below is one of their ads (not dated) for a similar setup.

51278314611_f6869c7eb1_h.jpg


A little extension at one end contains what was probably the successor to the wheel.

51279334620_0af0234f03_h.jpg


The electric motor, ca 1950, is by Brook Motors of Huddersfield (now Brook-Compton).

51278481293_c23ec69795_h.jpg


The carcass of a ‘compactum’ water pump made by Lee, Howl and Co of Tipton (closed 2006).

51278481263_1c118eb53d_h.jpg


Locals coming over to say hello.

51278481238_03da69de80_h.jpg
 

tigger

mog
Regular User
Another lovely collection of old water infrastructure.
Like many of the other smaller, primarily aggricultural, engineering works Massey cast several waterwheels for use in local mills. A good chance they made the double-rimmed one. Segments are far easier to cast that a complete rim. They mostly used pine formers and these could often be found in the derelict works 40 or so years ago.
 

Calamity Jane

i see beauty in the unloved, places & things
Regular User
So rustic & photogenic. I do hate seeing such features left to rot. Those wheels are just great. That double wheel is fab. I do look forward to your pump houses. I wish we had a few near me. Lovely stuff:cool:
 
Top