Description

GREAT BEDWYN CROFTON
SU 26 SE
5/93 Crofton Pumping Station
5.1985
GV I
Pumping Station for the Kennet and Avon Canal Co. 1802-9, John
Rennie, chief engineer, enlarged 1843 and restored 1971. Group of
buildings comprising engine house, boiler house, side boiler house
and various attached structures. Pumphouse of brickwork, English
bond, with hipped large slate roof. Four-storey 4 window bays.
Entrance off centre on north gable, round headed, with access
across header leat. Lower boiler house attached by gable to south,
brick with slate roof and large fanlight. Engine house with 12-
pane sashes, 6-pane to top floor. Boiler house with gable window.
Further boiler house to side of 1843.
Interior: Engine house has 2 pumping engines, No 1, of 1812 by
Boulton and Watt with condenser and parallel motion. Six-ton 9 m
cast iron beam. Valves modified 1843 and condenser relocated. No
2 engine by Harvey & Co of Hayle, 1843, cylinder replaced 1903.
Both engines 1.066 m cylinder bore, 2.44 m stroke raising 1 ton of
water each stroke, 12 and 9 strokes per minute respectively. Water
is raised 12.19 m from a tunnel from the reservoir and canal pound
supplemented from canal lock No 63 after 1847. Water is laundered
into header leat (now derelict) leading to summit of canal 1500 m
to the west, above lock 62. Boilers of Lancashire type replacing
originals in 1896. 8.2 m x 2.28 m diameter. A subsidiary pump was
installed 1826 to supply water to Tottenham House (q.v.). The
engines are the earliest steam beam engines still in working order.
The pumping station is the key element in an important group of
industrial and utilitarian monuments in Crofton, which also
includes the reservoir outfall (q.v.) locks (q.v.), the Great
Western Railway and a 1939-45 pillbox.

Listing NGR: SU2614662269

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Crofton Pumping Station at Wikipedia
• Crofton Pumping Station official website
• Wikidata Q5187496

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)