The Pumping Station at Whitacre Waterworks,

Shustoke Shustoke is a village in the North Warwickshire district of the county of Warwickshire in England.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 549. It is situated 2.5 miles no ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

, is a

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

Civic Gospel The Civic Gospel was a philosophy of municipal activism and improvement that emerged in Birmingham, England, in the mid-19th century. Tracing its origins to the teaching of independent Nonconformist (Protestantism), nonconformist preacher George D ...

pumping house UK hard house or simply hard house is a style of electronic dance music that emerged in the early 1990s and is synonymous with its association to the Trade club and the associated DJs there that created the style. It often features a speedy te ...

built in circa 1872. Along with the construction of Shustoke Reservoir, it was originally designed to pump six million

gallon The gallon is a unit of volume in British imperial units and United States customary units. The imperial gallon (imp gal) is defined as , and is or was used in the United Kingdom and its former colonies, including Ireland, Canada, Australia ...

s of fresh water per day to nearby

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

. It started operating in 1883, but was shortly thereafter in 1904 put into standby as the Elan Valley reservoirs and aqueduct scheme started to supply Birmingham with its freshwater needs. It instead was latterly used in 1908 to supply water to

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

, and now

Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire to the north-east.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's population at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 censu ...

Atherstone Atherstone is a market town and civil parish in the North Warwickshire district of Warwickshire, England. Located in the far north of the county, Atherstone is on the A5 national route, and is adjacent to the border with Leicestershire which ...

, and

Bedworth Bedworth ( or locally ) is a market town in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth, Warwickshire, England.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : It is situated between Coventry, 6 miles (9.5 km) to the south, and Nuneaton, to th ...

. The water supply emanates from the nearby river Bourne and the

river Blythe The River Blythe flows through the English Midlands from central Warwickshire, through the Borough of Solihull and on to Coleshill in north Warwickshire. It runs along the Meriden Gap in the Midlands Plateau, is fed by the River Cole and ...

. The pumping station building was listed grade II* in March 1982 as a notable example of

civic gospel The Civic Gospel was a philosophy of municipal activism and improvement that emerged in Birmingham, England, in the mid-19th century. Tracing its origins to the teaching of independent Nonconformist (Protestantism), nonconformist preacher George D ...

. The listing also covers a Victorian filter house, water well, and Superintendent's house. In 2018 the unused building was placed on

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

Heritage at Risk Register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for acti ...

due to its poor condition and prioritised as in immediate risk of further rapid deterioration. The pumping station and reservoir originally belonged to the Water Department of the City of Birmingham, but now they are the responsibility of

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 ...

. The reservoir is a popular leisure site for sailing and walking. Apart from the two clocks, the original pumping machinery and ancillaries have largely been dismantled and replaced with modern equipment. The site was largely extended in 1977 with new more modern works. It is believed to originally have contained two

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 ...

s by

James Watt James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was f ...

, one of which is now on display in the Science Museum, Birmingham.

Notable features

The pumping station house is predominantly constructed in red brick with stone dressings, the roofs are generally pitched and tiled in clay, and the eaves decorated with

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a Cornice (architecture), cornice which helps to support them. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally transl ...

eaves and

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

s. The Southeastern part of the building is prominent, with a tall gabled central part with 6 windows in the gable and 3 large gothic windows below. It is flanked by aisled constructions with

apsidal In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In Byzant ...

ends and with semi-conical roofs. The southwestern end is also prominent, again with large gabled roof, with a semi-circular extension with semi-conical roof on the western end, and a circular corner turret with conical roof on the east. The northern part of the building comprises a large uninterrupted wing, with a longitudinal pitched roof with glazed rooflight ventilators, and seven smaller gabled roofs at right-angles to the main roof. There are many large gothic windows within the various facades.

References

External links

*
Urban Exploration website photographs of the interior and exterior
{{DEFAULTSORT:Listed Building

Pumping Station Pumping stations, also called pumphouses, are public utility buildings containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are critical in a variety of infrastructure systems, such as water supply, Land reclamation, ...

Water supply pumping stations Borough of North Warwickshire Grade II* listed buildings in Warwickshire Grade II* listed industrial buildings Water supply in Birmingham, West Midlands