![Claymills Pumping Station - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Claymills_Pumping_Station_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2147565.jpg)
Claymills Pumping Station is a restored
Victorian sewage
pumping station
Pumping stations, also called pumphouses in situations such as 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 infrastructure system ...
on the north side of
Burton upon Trent
Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In 2011, it had a population of 72,299. The ...
,
Staffordshire,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It was designed by
James Mansergh and used to pump
sewage to the sewage farm at
Egginton
Egginton is a village and civil parish in the local government district of South Derbyshire, England. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 574.
Location
The village is located just off Ryknild Street, otherwise known as ...
.
![Beam 'D engine' Claymills Pumping Station - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Beam_%27D_engine%27_Claymills_Pumping_Station_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1507938.jpg)
The main pumping plant consists of four
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,
beam pumping engines. These are arranged in mirror image pairs, in two separate engine houses, with a central boiler house (containing five
Lancashire boiler
A shell or flued boiler is an early and relatively simple form of boiler used to make steam, usually for the purpose of driving a steam engine. The design marked a transitional stage in boiler development, between the early haystack boilers and t ...
s with
economiser
Economizers (US and Oxford spelling), or economisers (UK), are mechanical devices intended to reduce energy consumption, or to perform useful function such as preheating a fluid. The term economizer is used for other purposes as well. Boiler, po ...
s) and chimney. The engines were built in 1885 by
Gimson and Company of
Leicester. All the engines are similar, and the following description is limited to only one, but applicable to all.
The high-pressure cylinder is 24-inch bore by 6-foot stroke, and the low-pressure cylinder is 38-inch bore by 8-foot stroke. Steam is distributed by means of double beat 'Cornish' valves, mounted in upper and lower valve chests. The cylinders act on one end of the beam, via
Watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
's parallel motion. The beam itself is 26 feet 4 inches between end centres, 4 feet deep at the centre, weighs 13
ton
Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses.
Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean
* the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds
...
s and is carried on bearings.
Currently B, C and D engines are in steam around 13 times a year, with A engine still in the unrestored state. The Clay Mills Trust has now decided to restore the last unrestored beam engine, A engine. It will be restored to an operational state taking into consideration its history since last operating in 1969.
The modern sewage works, run by
Severn Trent Water
Severn Trent plc is a water company based in Coventry, England. It supplies 4.6 million households and business across the Midlands and Wales.
It is traded on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Severn Trent, the ...
, is alongside the pumping station.
See also
*
Listed buildings in Burton (civil parish)
References
External links
Preservation society web site
{{Coord, 52.8298, -1.6113, type:landmark_region:GB-STS, display=title
Preserved beam engines
Steam museums in England
Museums in Staffordshire
Sewage pumping stations
Infrastructure completed in 1895
Former pumping stations