Waddon Pumping Station - steam winch
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Waddon Pumping Station - steam winch by Chris Allen as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Waddon Pumping Station - steam winch
Image: © Chris Allen Taken: 13 May 1982
This was the last site in the UK to use reciprocating steam engines to pump drinking water. It closed in 1983 and has been demolished. There were two horizontal duplex steam winches used to service the wells and built by Clarke, Chapman & Co Ltd, Gateshead. One was removed for preservation and the other was probably scrapped. I don't know where the removed one is currently. These were hidden in the basement but I had a trusty guide to UK engines that alerted me to their existence so that I could seek them out.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.358989
Longitude
-0.114592