The Dogdyke Engine is a drainage engine near

Tattershall Tattershall is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated on the A153 Horncastle to Sleaford road, east from the point where that road crosses the River Witham. At its eastern end, Tatter ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

, in

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 ...

. The drainage of of land around Tattershall was authorised in 1796, and came under the control of the Witham Third District commissioners in 1844 The building dates to 1856 when a rotative beam engine was built to replace windmill style engines possibly dating to 1540 and draining land between the rivers Bain and

Witham Witham () is a town in the county of Essex in the East of England, with a population ( 2011 census) of 25,353. It is part of the District of Braintree and is twinned with the town of Waldbröl, Germany. Witham stands between the city of Che ...

. The engine discharged into the River Witham, but has a long fetch from a drain parallel to the river called ''The Dogdyke engine drain'' originating just south of Kirkstead at a place called ''Parkbeck''. 1856 is relatively late and Wheeler does say that the 1856 engine replaces one installed in 1841, but the location of that is unknown. The building is a grade II listed ancient monument.

Engines

* Bradley and Craven Beam engine and scoop wheel, built 1856 * Ruston & Hornsby Diesel engine and

centrifugal pump Centrifugal pumps are used to transport fluids by the conversion of rotational kinetic energy to the hydrodynamic energy of the fluid flow. The rotational energy typically comes from an engine or electric motor. They are a sub-class of dynamic ...

, built 1940 * Ruston & Hornsby auxiliary engine.

Steam engine

Dogdyke Engine-Geograph-580412-by-Chris-Allen

Dogdyke engine scoopwheel-Geograph-579691-by-Chris-Allen

The steam engine is maintained by a preservation trust, and steamed on weekends throughout the summer. Although the

Pinchbeck Engine The Pinchbeck Engine is a drainage engine, a rotative beam engine built in 1833 to drain Pinchbeck Marsh, to the north of Spalding, Lincolnshire, in England. Until it was shut down in 1952, the engine discharged into the ''Blue Gowt'' which ...

is older, it can no longer be steamed. The preservation trust claim this is the oldest working steam drainage engine. The engine built by

Bradley & Craven Ltd Bradley & Craven Ltd was a manufacturing company specializing in brickmaking machinery in Wakefield England. It was founded in 1843 by two young engineers, William Craven and Richard Bradley to manufacture what was then revolutionary machinery for ...

of Wakefield has a flywheel, and a cylinder of diameter and stroke. The construction is similar to an 'A' frame, but the decorative form of the cast iron upright obscures that basic shape and might be considered unique. The

scoop wheel Rim driven Scoop wheel of the Stretham Old Engine, Cambridgeshire A scoop wheel or scoopwheel is a pump, usually used for land drainage. A scoop wheel pump is similar in construction to a water wheel, but works in the opposite manner: a wate ...

is in diameter and runs at up to 7rpm through a 4:1 gearbox from the engine. The first boiler, which lasted until 1909, was a twin tube Cornish type, working at 12psi. The replacement was a

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 ...

made by

Fosters of Lincoln William Foster & Co Ltd was an agricultural machinery company based in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England often called "Fosters of Lincoln." The company can be traced back to 1846, when William Foster purchased a flour mill in Lincoln. William Fos ...

, delivering 15psi. Although the structure of this boiler survives, its rear end has been removed to make room for a modern vertical boiler which is used for the demonstration steamings. The original Chimney was struck by lightning in 1922 and reduced somewhat. It was felled in 1941 after the conversion to diesel operation.

Diesel engines

Dogdyke Engine Diesel-Geograph-580397-by-Chris-Allen

The two diesel engines are maintained by The Witham Third District

Internal Drainage Board An internal drainage board (IDB) is a type of operating authority which is established in areas of special drainage need in England and Wales with permissive powers to undertake work to secure clean water drainage and water level management with ...

as a standby for the nearby electric pumping station. They are usually operated when the museum is open. The steam engine was replaced in 1940 by a

Ruston & Hornsby Ruston & Hornsby was an industrial equipment manufacturer in Lincoln, England founded in 1918. The company is best known as a manufacturer of narrow and standard gauge diesel locomotives and also of steam shovels. Other products included ca ...

7XHR diesel engine, serial number 194833, driving a 22 inch Gwynnes centrifugal pump. This engine has a capacity of 23.6 litre. The 7XHR design has a single horizontal cylinder of bore, stroke, and develops at 300rpm. There is also a Ruston & Hornsby 1VTO auxiliary engine, used to provide the starting air for the larger engine and to operate a small priming pump for the

Gwynnes Limited Gwynnes Limited was a City of London England engineering business, iron founders and pump makers founded in 1849 to capitalise on the centrifugal pump inventedThe first practical centrifugal pump called the Massachusetts pump was built in the U ...

pump. The 1VTO design has a single horizontal cylinder of bore, stroke, and develops at 1000rpm.

Public access

Access to the site on steaming days involves driving down an unmade road and walking across a grassed area. Although essentially on one level, disabled access is limited because of the historic nature of the site. Toilets, teas and limited wheelchair access are offered.

Engines

Steam engine

Diesel engines

Public access

See also

References

External links