IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Sudbrook, CALDICOT, NP26 5SY

Heading along Old School Mews.

This pumping station is run by Network Rail in order to keep the Severn Tunnel dry.

This OS cut mark can be found on the Works Building south side of the road. It marks a point 16.087m above mean sea level.

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.

This building was built by T A Walker and his resident engineer A G Luke for the Great Western Railway. It was constructed in 1886 to house the six 70" Cornish beam engines by Harveys of Hayle which were needed to lift the complete flow of the Great Spring, which had flooded the Severn Tunnel workings in 1879 and 1883. It was the largest such engine house in the world. It is now Grade II listed. All six engines were still in situ in 1961 although only three were in steam, and these were replaced by electric pumps in that year. The Great Spring is still pumped continuously from the bottom of the 165' shaft and the water is supplied to the nearby paper mill.

The present Trinity Presbyterian Chapel is built in the late twentieth-century style and was probably built during the 1960s.

The bufferstops remain in situ in the pumping station site, though the track here has been lifted. The line was last used in the early 2000s, and is now disconnected from the main line.

About half of the huge engine house that housed six 70" Cornish beam pumping engines that were built in 1887 and scrapped in 1968. The big cross wall supported three of the massive beams and the shaft is between the foot of the wall and the photographer. The steps and door in the distance provide access to a large water tank. One of the beams survives in Swansea but is out of context - Image

Part of the Severn Tunnel pumping works. This huge building contained six Harvey of Hayle 70" Cornish beam pumping engines built in 1887. They worked to the mid 1960s and were then scrapped by British Rail in what has been described by some as the 'greatest act of corporate vandalism' in 1968. The house is still used for pumping but is now a vast empty space with the pumps in the shaft below. Somewhat surprisingly, Network Rail allowed a whole group of us a Saturday morning visit and a good time was had by all.