The Abbey Pumping Station is a museum of science and technology in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

, England, on Corporation Road, next to the

National Space Centre The National Space Centre is a museum and educational resource covering the fields of space science and astronomy, along with a space research programme in partnership with the University of Leicester. It is located on the north side of the city ...

. With four working steam-powered beam engines from its time as a sewage pumping station, it also houses exhibits for transport, public health, light and optics, toys and civil engineering.

Sewage pumping station

The building was constructed in 1891 by

Leicester Corporation Leicester City Council is a unitary authority responsible for local government in the city of Leicester, England. It consists of 54 councillors, representing 22 wards in the city, overseen by a directly elected mayor. It is currently contro ...

on the north side of Leicester, alongside the

River Soar The River Soar () is a major tributary of the River Trent in the English East Midlands and is the principal river of Leicestershire. The source of the river is midway between Hinckley and Lutterworth. The river then flows north through Leicest ...

, as a

pumping station Pumping stations, also called pumphouses in situations such as well drilling, drilled wells and drinking water, are facilities containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastru ...

used to pump the town's

sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged from residenc ...

to the sewage farm at

Beaumont Leys Beaumont Leys is a suburb and electoral ward in north-western Leicester, in the Leicester district, in the ceremonial county of Leicestershire, England. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 16,480. Locally, Beaumont Leys is usual ...

. The grand Victorian building, designed by

Stockdale Harrison Stockdale Harrison (1846-10 November 1914) FRIBA was an architect based in Leicester best known for Usher Hall, Edinburgh. History Stockdale Harrison was born in November 1846, the son of William Harrison (1813-1873) timber merchant, and Mar ...

(Leicester architect) in 1890, houses four

Arthur Woolf Arthur Woolf (1766, Camborne, Cornwall – 16 October 1837, Guernsey) was a Cornish engineer, most famous for inventing a high-pressure compound steam engine. As such he made an outstanding contribution to the development and perfection of the ...

compound

beam engine A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newco ...

s built by

Gimson and Company Gimson and Company were founded in 1840 by Josiah and Benjamin Gimson on Welford Road in Leicester. The company were listed as Engineers, Ironfounders, Boiler Makers & General Machinists. They later moved to Vulcan Works, Vulcan Road, Humberstone ...

of Leicester. The first attempt to respond to the population's sewage disposal was in 1850 when piped water made water closets possible, and Thomas Wicksteed designed and built sewers leading to a sedimentation and de-oderisation treatment works on the northern, downstream, edge of the town. Limited capacity and high costs meant that a

Pail closet A pail closet or pail privy was a room used for the disposal of human excreta, under the "pail system" (or Rochdale system) of waste removal. The "closet" (a word which had long meant "toilet" in one usage) was a small outhouse (privy) which con ...

system continued to be used for poorer neighbourhoods.VCH 'The City of Leicester: Social and administrative history since 1835', in A History of the County of Leicester: Volume 4, the City of Leicester, ed. R A McKinley (London, 1958), pp. 251-30
VCH/leics/vol4
accessed 2 November 2015 As the town expanded so did the problems of pollution in the River Soar from the treatment works. Disposal of the

Night soil Night soil is a historically used euphemism for human excreta collected from cesspools, privies, pail closets, pit latrines, privy middens, septic tanks, etc. This material was removed from the immediate area, usually at night, by workers employ ...

from the pail closets, via railway wagons and canal barges, caused complaints of smell and pollution. A new solution was needed and the answer was to pump everything to a

Sewage farm Sewage farms use sewage for irrigation and fertilizing agricultural land. The practice is common in warm, arid climates where irrigation is valuable while sources of fresh water are scarce. Suspended solids may be converted to humus by microbes an ...

on higher ground at

. The Abbey Pumping Station replaced a smaller facility at Knighton. The pumping station was fed by two main trunk sewers, one from the East of the city that ran under Bruin Street and then under the

Grand Union Canal The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter st ...

, and another that ran along the route of Abbey Lane and then across fields. By 1912, the 2,000 acres sewage farm and pumping capacity of up to 20 million gallons a day was insufficient to meet the needs of the growing city, with 130 miles of new sewers built since the station opened, and extensions were agreed. In 1939 a

ram pump A plunger pump is a type of positive displacement pump where the high-pressure seal is stationary and a smooth cylindrical plunger slides through the seal. This makes them different from piston pumps and allows them to be used at higher pressures ...

was installed, reportedly the largest of its kind in Europe at the time. The station continued pumping Leicester's sewage until 1964, when electric pumps took over, and within a few years the Wanlip Sewage Treatment plant took over and the pumping station was no longer needed.

Museum

In 1972 the building re-opened as a museum of science and technology, run by Leicestershire Museums. The huge

beam engines Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

were retained intact, and were gradually restored to full working order. It is one of a number of historic

s which have been preserved. Leicester City Council became a unitary authority in 1997 and the Abbey Pumping Station is one of the museums that is within their jurisdiction. File:Abbey Pumping station.JPG, Building viewed from Northeast File:Abbey Pumping Entrance.JPG, Abbey Pumping Station entrance File:Abbey Display 01.JPG, One of the educational displays File:Abbey Pumping Station - Beam Engines - geograph.org.uk - 2719844.jpg, Beam engines

Displays

The steam engines (see below) which drive the sewage pumps can be seen. In addition, there is combination of informative educational displays (mainly about water and sewage), an old-fashioned film theatre, and collections of artifacts and pictures ranging from domestic appliances to trams. An eclectic collection of larger items of industrial archeology is in the grounds. This includes a narrow gauge railway and some transport items.

Beam engines

Abbey Pumping Station - Cylinder heads - geograph

The four

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

s were built in Leicester by

and today are rare examples of

Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

compound rotative

s. At the time these engines were built they were considered an old-fashioned but very well-established design. The engines are large examples. The cylinders are x and x . The cast-iron flywheels are diameter and the beams are of plain steel plate construction and long. The engines are of 200 indicated horsepower each.Chris Allen, 2011, '' Beam Engines in the UK''
www.geograph.org.uk 2#abbey-pumping-station-leicester
accessed 5 November 2015 These engines are rated at 200 hp, at 12–19 rpm, of which they pumped 208,000 imperial gallons of sewage an hour (263 L/s). All four engines have been restored back to working condition by a team of volunteers: the Leicester Museums Technology Association. It is the only engine house in the world where you can see four working examples of the same beam engine in one building.Roger Caunt, 2011
Leicester Citizen, March 2011
Leicester Civic Society. Current projects in the engine house are the ongoing maintenance of the latest restored engine, No.1 (restored over a period of 4 years by the volunteers).

Museum collections

The Pumping Station is normally open Daily from 11am - 4:30pm. Engines can be seen in steam at various steam days along with other steam and early internal combustion exhibits.

Transport collection

The Museum has a

narrow gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...

which is normally operated by ''Leonard'', an

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

locomotive built by W.G. Bagnall, Stafford as works number 2087 in 1918, but four diesel locomotives – two

Simplex In geometry, a simplex (plural: simplexes or simplices) is a generalization of the notion of a triangle or tetrahedron to arbitrary dimensions. The simplex is so-named because it represents the simplest possible polytope in any given dimension. ...

, one Lister and one Ruston – are also available if needed. There is also a collection of vintage road vehicles which are operated on selected days. Exhibits include: several

fire engine A fire engine (also known in some places as a fire truck or fire lorry) is a road vehicle (usually a truck) that functions as a firefighting apparatus. The primary purposes of a fire engine include transporting firefighters and water to an i ...

s, buses (see below), an 1894

Aveling and Porter Aveling and Porter was a British agricultural engine and steamroller (road roller) manufacturer. Thomas Aveling and Richard Thomas Porter entered into partnership in 1862, and developed a steam engine three years later in 1865. By the earl ...

steam roller A steamroller (or steam roller) is a form of road roller – a type of heavy construction machinery used for leveling surfaces, such as roads or airfields – that is powered by a steam engine. The leveling/flattening action is achieved through ...

, several diesel rollers, a

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

fish and chips Fish and chips is a popular hot dish consisting of fried fish in crispy batter, served with chips. The dish originated in England, where these two components had been introduced from separate immigrant cultures; it is not known who created t ...

van, an ex

Leicester Corporation Tramways Leicester Corporation Tramways was a tramway system in Leicester, England from 1901 to 1949. History The first tramways in Leicester started horse-pulled operation in 1874, by the Leicester Tramways Company. The first route was from the Clo ...

tower wagon and an

Austin K2 The Austin K2/Y is a British heavy military ambulance that was used by all Commonwealth services during the Second World War. Built by Austin, it was based on the 1938 Austin K30 30-cwt light truck which as the K2 chassis was built during the w ...

brewery dray lorry with ales. ;Buses *1939 Leicester City Transport: AEC Renown 0664 CBC 921. Fully restored and operational. *1958 Delaine Coaches:

Leyland Tiger Cub The Leyland Tiger Cub (coded as PSUC1) was a lightweight underfloor-engined chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1952 and 1970. History The Leyland Tiger Cub was launched in 1952. Most were built as 44-45 seat buses, with a smaller number ...

PSUC1/2 MTL 750. Fully restored and operational. *1958 Leicester City Transport: Leyland Titan PD3/1 TBC 164. Fully restored and operational.

References

External links

Museum web page

Steam Toys in Action
– annual event held at the museum in January/February, organised by the museum volunteers {{Authority control Waterworks museums in England Museums in Leicester Steam museums in England Technology museums in the United Kingdom Preserved beam engines History of Leicester Buildings and structures in Leicester Infrastructure completed in 1891 1972 establishments in England Industry museums in England Museums established in 1972 Former pumping stations