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, England. It encompasses the three Sandwell council wards of Blackheath, Cradley Heath and Old Hill, and Rowley. At the 2011 census, the com ...

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

, 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 and d ...

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. Utilizing a shaft 525 feet deep, 1,600,000 litres of water were pumped from the mines into the canal daily. It ceased work in 1928 and 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 the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, United States. The museum collection contains ...

in Dearborn,

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

in 1930. The 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. 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 Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal, in the West Midlands county, England, is part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations, (BCN). It was constructed at a 453–foot elevation, the Wednesbury or Birmingham level; it has no locks. The total length of the ...

. The area came into the possession of Sir Horace St.Paul from his father-in-law,

John Ward, 2nd Viscount Dudley and Ward John Ward, 2nd Viscount Dudley and Ward (22 February 1725 – 10 October 1788) was a British peer and politician. He was the son of John Ward, 1st Viscount Dudley and Ward, and his first wife Anna Maria (née Bourchier) and educated at Oriel Coll ...

, on his marriage to John's daughter Anna Maria Ward. It was Horace who instigated the construction of the engine house.

References

External links

* * Engine houses Buildings and structures in Sandwell Preserved beam engines Rowley Regis {{WestMidlands-struct-stub