WATER POWERED BEAM PUMP

WATER POWERED BEAM PUMP, MOUNT SION ROAD

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1393833
Date first listed:: 10-Jun-2010
List Entry Name:: WATER POWERED BEAM PUMP
Statutory Address:: WATER POWERED BEAM PUMP, MOUNT SION ROAD

A wide shot of the area. A spillway is to the left of the image. The beam pump is to the right. — Uploaded by tom jeffs This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1393833
Date first listed:: 10-Jun-2010
List Entry Name:: WATER POWERED BEAM PUMP
Statutory Address 1:: WATER POWERED BEAM PUMP, MOUNT SION ROAD

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: WATER POWERED BEAM PUMP, MOUNT SION ROAD

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Bury (Metropolitan Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SD 76824 06567

Reasons for Designation

Yes list.

Details

BURY

326/0/10081 MOUNT SION ROAD 10-JUN-10 RADCLIFFE (Off) WATER POWERED BEAM PUMP

II A former water-powered beam pump of early C19 date originally associated with the Mount Sion Mill, Radcliffe.

MATERIALS: A wrought and cast iron pump with stone pillars, spillway, wheelpit and retaining wall.

PLAN: The structure is rectangular in plan.

EXTERIOR: Two tapering sandstone stone pillars approximately 2m tall rise one from each side of a stone-lined wheelpit and support the cast iron rocker mechanism for the pumping rods which were attached and driven by the waterwheel. The wheel has eccentric cams on the outer hub plates which powered the pump rods. The wheel, its axle and driving gear remain within the wheelpit although timber water buckets and other timberwork has eroded. The wheel was a low breast wheel with water falling into the buckets at mid-point on its circumference. Stop-plank beam slots are visible on the goit-side of the wheelpit walls to hold back the water when the pump was not used. The pumps, pistons and pipe work all remain in situ.

Immediately to the west of the pump is a stepped stone spillway taking overflow water from the goit down into the river while immediately to the east of the pump there is a part-filled stone-lined spillway with retaining wall that provided the same function.

HISTORY: Mount Sion Mill is thought to have been built in the first half of the C19 and is depicted on the Ordnance Survey map of 1850 as `Mount Sion Print Works'. Reservoirs lie to the east of the mill as does a weir and goit. Water in the goit was used to turn a waterwheel which powered the beam engine to pump water into the reservoirs at a time of water shortage. Spillways or overflows were constructed immediately adjacent to the pump to take excess water from the goit down into the river. On post-1850 maps the mill is depicted as a bleach works. During World War I the works was used to manufacture guncotton. In 1918 the bleach works burnt down. At an unspecified date the site became Mount Sion Papermill and it remains in use as a pulp processing plant.

SOURCES: Ordnance Survey Map 1st edition 1:10,560, 1850. Sunderland, Frank, The Book of Radcliffe p.73. 1995.

REASONS FOR DECISION: The early-mid C19 Mount Sion beam pump, Radcliffe, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Rarity: the Mount Sion beam pump survives in a relatively good condition, still retains most of its component parts and is an unusual survival of its type * Intactness: the pump's level of survival means that it is still clearly possible to understand how it functioned * Interest: the surviving adjacent goit and reservoirs illustrate clearly how the water management system at the former mill was powered and supplied by the beam pump.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 506624
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.