The Bratch Water Pumping Station
THE BRATCH WATER PUMPING STATION, BRATCH LANE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1232411
- Date first listed:
- 09-Oct-1980
- List Entry Name:
- The Bratch Water Pumping Station
- Statutory Address:
- THE BRATCH WATER PUMPING STATION, BRATCH LANE
Location
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Official list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1232411
- Date first listed:
- 09-Oct-1980
- List Entry Name:
- The Bratch Water Pumping Station
- Statutory Address 1:
- THE BRATCH WATER PUMPING STATION, BRATCH LANE
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- THE BRATCH WATER PUMPING STATION, BRATCH LANE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Staffordshire
- District:
- South Staffordshire (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Wombourne
- National Grid Reference:
- SO 86829 93727
Details
WOMBOURNE
SO8687 BRATCH LANE 1576/13/143 (South side) 09-OCT-1980 II* Water pumping station, now disused but with engine restored late-C20. Dated 1895, Baldwin Latham, consultant engineer, for the Wolverhampton Corporation Water Department. Ruabon red brick with blue and buff brick, stone and tile dressings and a slate hipped roof. Rectangular plan with left-hand and rear boiler house, coal store and borehole house. Venetian Gothic Revival style with Scottish Baronial details. 2 storeys and basement; 2-window range.
EXTERIOR: Symmetrical front has paired blue brick bands, Lombard frieze and crenellated parapet, the corners enriched by moulded, corbelled bartizans with fishscale slates to conical roofs with finials. A flight of steps leads up to a gabled entrance surround with triple banded columns with foliate capitals to a pointed archway with alternate red and white voussoirs, Y-tracery fanlight and double half-glazed doors. Flanking pointed-arched recessed bays with arches as the entrance, with three-coloured patterned brick panels to the tympanum and between mullion windows, the first-floor ones with shouldered arches. 1-window end return and 2-window rear bays as the front. Single-storey side and rear ranges have openings with polychromatic heads and tympana, the side range with crow-stepped gables each end with 2 ground-floor and 2 smaller upper windows, and a rear gabled range with a coped end gable.
INTERIOR: Contains a pair of inverted vertical triple expansion steam engines, begun by James Watt and Co, and completed by Thornewill and Wareham when Watt foundered. They worked through bell cranks in the adjoining borehole house. Brick detailing at the windows is similar to exterior.
HISTORY: The two engines were installed in 1896 and 1897; coal was delivered from the adjoining Staffs-Worcester Canal, and pumping stopped in 1960. Between 1991-96, the 'Victoria' engine was renovated to working order. The original drawings for the 'Bilston Water Works - Pumping Station at the Bratch' survive.
A remarkably elaborate design with an uncommon combination of elements from widely different sources, illustrating the sometimes unlettered determination of the period to make the pumping station a building of architectural distinction. The unique architecture and survival of the pumping plant make this a very special site, of outstanding interest.
Listing NGR: SO8682993727
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 407791
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 04-Jun-2026 at 01:20:55.
Download a full scale map (PDF)© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey Licence number 100024900.© British Crown and SeaZone Solutions Limited 2026. All rights reserved. Licence number 102006.006.
End of official list entry