Cleadon Pumping Station

Image: © Andrew Curtis Taken: 30 Jan 2020

The pumping station was originally operated by steam from coal fired Cornish boilers, using about 470 lbs of coal per hour, powering two Cornish Beam engines which in turn drove combined ram and bucket pumps down into the 269.88 feet deep (12 ft diameter) well below the Engine House. The resultant vacuum produced in the shaft by the ‘ram and bucket’ moving up and down, drew up the water which was piped away under ground to the large circular reservoir, which held 2 million gallons of water. This reservoir was covered in 1954 by what was reputed to then be the largest unsupported concrete dome in Europe. About 1.5 million gallons of water was extracted each 12 hour day. The tall (100 feet) Italianate listed tower on the higher land above was actually a ‘chimney’ that provided a draught for the boilers as well as dispersing waste gases from the squat Boiler House which is attached to the taller Engine House in the centre of the site. The ‘artificial’ cooling pond to the south of the site, fed by water from the well but now a shallow grass depression, was needed because the site did not have a natural surface stream, a characteristic typical of limestone areas. Water from the cooling pond was recycled after use via underground pipes back into the cooling pond. Cleadon Hills Conservation Area Character Appraisal (2007).

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0