Stretham Old Engine is a steam-powered engine just south of Stretham in

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, that was used to pump water from flood-affected areas of

The Fens The Fens or Fenlands in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a system o ...

back into the

River Great Ouse The River Great Ouse ( ) is a river in England, the longest of several British rivers called "Ouse". From Syresham in Northamptonshire, the Great Ouse flows through Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to drain into the ...

. It is one of only three surviving drainage engines in East Anglia, and is a Grade II* listed building.

History

During the 17th century, large areas of fenland in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

were reclaimed via extensive draining schemes. Despite this, crops and livestock were frequently swept away by widescale flooding as the land sank because of the drainage. As a partial solution,

windpump A windpump is a wind-driven device which is used for pumping water. Windpumps were used to pump water since at least the 9th century in what is now Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. The use of wind pumps became widespread across the Muslim world a ...

s were used to pump water away from flood-affected areas, but relied on the weather and lacked the power required to lift large quantities of water.

Wicken Fen Wicken Fen is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Wicken, Cambridgeshire, Wicken in Cambridgeshire. It is also a National Nature Reserve, and a Nature Conservation Review site. It is protected by international designations ...

nature reserve has a preserved and restored windpump, used to manage the water table in the Fen. The advent of steam power in the late 18th century offered a new solution, and these new engines began to spring up around The Fens.

Steam engine

Scoop-Wheel-at-Streatham-old-engine-by-Chris-Allen

The steam engine on the Old West River (Great Ouse) just south of Stretham was built by the

Butterley Company The Butterley Company was an English manufacturing firm founded as Benjamin Outram and Company in 1790. Its subsidiaries existed until 2009. Origins This area of Derbyshire had been known for its outcrops of iron ore which had been exploited at ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

in 1831, at a cost of £4950. It replaced four nearby windmills and its scoop wheel was used successfully for over a century to lift water from flood channels back into the river. Powered by

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

that was brought by barge, it consumed a ton of fuel every four hours. The rotative

beam engine A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead Beam (structure), 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 b ...

is of the double-acting type with a beam of and a flywheel in diameter. The scoop wheel it drives has been successively enlarged as the level of the fens has shrunk: the first wheel was , increased to in 1850 and to in 1896 and lifted 120-150 tons of water per minute. During use, the engine needed constant supervision, with the stoker and superintendent on 24-hour call. One superintendent even installed a

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorption, or Reflection (physics), reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally, it was an optical instrument using len ...

in his window so he could supervise the workmen without the need to get his feet wet.

Replacement

In 1924, the installation of a Mirrlees diesel engine saw the steam engine relegated to 'standby', and the last serious use was during the floods of 1939 and 1940. Prickwillow Museum contains a nearly identical Mirrlees diesel engine that has been preserved and restored to working order. The pumping station was later replaced with five smaller, more efficient, electrical pumps that drain into the

River Cam The River Cam () is the main river flowing through Cambridge in eastern England. After leaving Cambridge, it flows north and east before joining the River Great Ouse to the south of Ely, Cambridgeshire, Ely, at Pope's Corner. The total distanc ...

and are still in use.

Public opening

The engine is open to the public on Sunday afternoons and Bank Holidays from the beginning of April to the end of October between 1.00pm and 5.00pm.

Picture gallery

References

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External links

Stretham Old Engine official website
{{The Fens Buildings and structures in Cambridgeshire Infrastructure completed in 1831 Grade II* listed buildings in Cambridgeshire Tourist attractions in Cambridgeshire Preserved beam engines Museums in Cambridgeshire Steam museums in England Old Engine