Claymills pumping station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Claymills Pumping Station is a restored Victorian sewage pumping station on the north side of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. It was designed by James Mansergh and used to pump sewage to the sewage farm at Etwall.

The main pumping plant consists of four Woolf compound, rotative, beam pumping engines. These are arranged in mirror image pairs, in two separate engine houses, with a central boiler house (containing five Lancashire boilers with economisers) and chimney. The engines were built in 1885 by Gimson and Company of Leicester. All the engines are similar and the following description is limited to only one, but applicable to all.

The high pressure cylinder is 24 inch bore by 6 ft stroke and the low pressure cylinder is 38 inch bore by 8 feet stroke. Steam is distributed by means of double beat 'Cornish' valves, mounted in upper and lower valve chests. The cylinders act on one end of the beam, via Watt's parallel motion. The beam itself is 26 feet 4 inches between end centres, 4 feet deep at the centre, weighs 13 tons and is carried on 12 inch diameter bearings.

Currently C and D engines are able to run under steam, work is ongoing to restore the A and B engines.

The modern sewage works, run by Severn Trent Water is alongside the pumping station.