Severn Tunnel No. 1 engine house - shaft

Image: © Chris Allen Taken: 12 May 2001

This is the shaft that once housed six reciprocating pumps driven by Cornish beam engines built in 1887 and scrapped in 1968. The huge building is now empty apart from a few artefacts and this modest shaft head plumbing supplied by 6 electric pumps below. The Severn Tunnel requires a huge amount of water to be pumped but this is not seepage from the river but is a 'great spring' encountered during driving that gave the contractor a major headache. Attempts to contain it failed so the only option was to pump it and the site had both Cornish beam engines and Bull engines on the Welsh side and a pair of Cornish beams on the English side. If the plant had lasted a bit longer it might have been preserved, at least in part but British Rail had no interest and some have described the plant's scrapping as the greatest act of corporate vandalism.

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