Description

THURCASTON BRADGATE ROAD (South Side)
SK 51 SW/SK 51 SE
CROPSTON
3/4/107
Pumping Houses at Cropston
Reservoir Water Works

GV II

2 Pumping houses of 1870 and 1894. By J.B. Everard of Leicester. Red brick
with stone dressings and slate roof. In Tudor style with shouldered stone
coped gables, stone band rising to form hood moulds over ground floor
windows, hood moulds and label stops to first floor windows and buttresses
with set-offs to sides. Complex consists of a 2 storey and basement 1870
pumping house (formerly beam engine), gable facing, with a 2 storey and
basement 1894 pumping house (formerly triple expansion engine) at right
angles to rear right. A 1 storey connecting building stands in angle where
also the octagonal chimney tower, partly truncated, now of c 30m. To rear
of 1870 house a 1 storey former boiler house building facing left. 1870
house has 5 polygonal stone steps leading up to stone doorcase with moulded
Tudor arch and columns to sides. 2 leaved door. Painted stone tablet
carved with Leicester City arms over. Above is a 5-light stone mullion
window with 'Erected 1870' in stone over. 1-light window in gable. 3 3-light
windows on both sides of building, those on ground floor with transoms.
On rear 5-light window similar to front. Elaborate cast iron flashings and
small lucarnes with finials to roof. Openwork stone parapet. This parapet
with blank carving continues round tower. At summit a similar parapet
over corbelled stone top. Below the 1 storey connecting building has stone
steps up to door. 1894 house on gable end facing right has 6 polygonal
stone steps up to stone Tudor style doorcase with elaborately carved foliage,
Leicester City arms and A.D. 1894. 5-light window above. To both sides
3 mullion and transom windows to ground floor and 3 1-lights above, the
architraves of which are connected to the parapet arcading. 1st floor
5-light to rear. Boiler house range of 1 storey and attic, 4 gables facing,
that to left of 1894. Other 3 roofs have elaborate cast iron flashings
and small lucarnes with finials. Below 4 pairs of carriage doors with
hood moulds and label stops and 1-lights above, the first floor band rising
to form their hood moulds. Stone coped gables. Further similar 1 storey
building to left and rear connecting with 1894 house. In front of 3 pairs
of the carriage doors a cobbled yard with low granite and slate rubble stone
surrounding walls with stone coping and low entrance piers. Inside boiler
house building iron tension roofs with cast iron Gothic style stretchers.
Inside the 1870 house the room comprising the whole lst floor has massive
triple purlin wooden roof with queen post type trusses c llm wide. The
complex stands in parklike setting with choice trees and shrubs.

Listing NGR: SK5499011355

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26472758

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

• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]