Cobb's Engine House (properly known as Windmill End Pumping Station) in
Rowley Regis
Rowley Regis ( ) is a town and former municipal borough in Sandwell in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It forms part of the area immediately west of Birmingham known as the Black Country and encompasses the fou ...
,
West Midlands, England, is a
scheduled ancient monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...
and a Grade II listed building built around 1831.
It housed a stationary steam pump used to pump water firstly from Windmill End Colliery and later other mines in the area. Utilising a shaft 525 feet deep, 1,600,000 litres of water were pumped from the mines into the canal daily.
The engine was overhauled in 1874. In 1919–20 financial difficulties in the local coal mining industry led to many pits being flooded and Cobb's became the last colliery pumping engine operating in the area.
It ceased work in 1928. Certain sources state that the
Newcomen type engine was moved to the
Henry Ford Museum
The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village, and as the Edison Institute) is a history museum complex in Dearborn, Michigan, United States, within Metro Detroit. The museum collection contai ...
in
Dearborn,
Michigan
Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
in 1930,
though another source states The Henry Ford Museum purchased a (modified) Newcomen Winding Engine from the same complex and removed it and its engine house to the museum. A photograph caption of the reconstructed installation on the museum website lists it as 'The Dudley Engine, circa 1791'.
Cobb's engine house originally had a cylinder floor at ground level and two floors above but they and the roof have gone, leaving the building as a shell. The chimney stands high and is at the base, successively narrowing to at the top.
The name of Cobb derives from a farmer who owned land in the neighbourhood before the engine house was built. From 1877 the engine house came to be officially known as Windmill End Pumping Station.
It stands near Windmill End Junction in the
Warren's Hall local nature reserve, where the
Dudley No. 2 Canal and the Boshboil Arm meets the southern end of the
Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal. The area came into the possession of
Sir Horace St.Paul from his father-in-law,
John Ward, 2nd Viscount Dudley and Ward
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second Ep ...
, on his marriage to John's daughter Anna Maria Ward. It was Horace who instigated the construction of the engine house.
References
External links
*
*{{NHLE , num=1229552 , desc=
Engine houses
Buildings and structures in Sandwell
Preserved beam engines
Rowley Regis