Chilcote Pumping Station

Summary

Pumping station, 1935-1936, to the designs of South Staffordshire Waterworks Chief Engineer, Frederic John Dixon.

Reasons for Designation

Chilcote Pumping Station is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a functionally expressive, distinctive and well-composed interwar pumping station which survives well;
* internally richly detailed with an extensive tiling scheme and good-quality dressed stone;
* part of the development of the ‘waterworks’ architectural tradition to form a South Staffordshire Waterworks house style.

Historic interest:

* dating from a period of great expansion by the South Staffordshire Waterworks company, overseen by accomplished designer and engineer, F J Dixon.

History

Chilcote pumping station was erected 1935-36 for the South Staffordshire Waterworks Company. The architect was the company’s chief engineer, Frederic John Dixon, M Inst C E. The builders were Thomas Lowe & Sons of Burton-on-Trent. Operation commenced in 1937.

South Staffordshire Water Company (SSW) was formed in 1853, under the guidance of the eminent civil engineer John Mclean, who had long been working to improve and extend the uncontaminated water supply to the South Staffordshire area. By the C19 the district had become densely populated and surface water supplies were often contaminated by local mining works. SSW expanded over the late C19 and C20 as it took over the neighbouring waterworks suppliers. Chief engineer Frederic John Dixon began in post in 1917, when the pressure of increasing supply was acute due to munitions production. The conversion of privvies to WCs, and the more general use of baths in the first decades of the C20 meant demand for water continued to rise. As described in Leerzem and Williams’s history of the company, Dixon’s tenure represents the most eventful period in its history: the number of houses supplied increased from 146,000 in 1917, to 233,529 in 1943; the length of mains almost doubled; 12 new pumping stations were constructed and 13 new reservoirs and towers were built.

Chilcote Pumping Station was authorised by the South Staffordshire Waterworks Act 1932 to provide an additional supply to Burton-on-Trent and the surrounding districts. The South Staffordshire Waterworks Act of 1866 (Section 16) specified that no well or new source of supply could be put down within a radius of seven miles of Burton-on-Trent Parish Church, and following a careful survey of the district to the south-east of the town, Chilcote was identified as the only site where a supply could be reasonably assured. Boreholes were sunk by C Isler and Company Ltd of Bear Lane, Southwark Street, London, on 19 April 1933 and completed by October 1935. Pumping plant was supplied by Mather and Platt Limited of Manchester and consisted of two electrically driven vertical spindle five stage centrifugal borehole pumps. These have been replaced by modern equipment and controls.

The pumping station is part of a wider complex, with a water softening and treatment plant, also built to the designs of Dixon, further ancillary buildings and two pairs of cottages.

Details

Pumping station, 1935-1936, to the designs of South Staffordshire Waterworks chief engineer, Frederic John Dixon.

MATERIALS: constructed from red brick laid in Flemish bond with limestone dressings.

PLAN: roughly square on plan, with the principal elevation facing east.

EXTERIOR: a single-storey, double-height building of three bays in a neo-classical style. It has a rusticated stone plinth with openings to the basement, balanced by a deep stone parapet. The principal façade is symmetrical, and has a central projecting porch above the plinth, with large windows to either side. The porch is accessed by a short flight of steps, and contains double doors with a moulded architrave. Above a panel is inscribed ‘CHILCOTE PUMPING STATION’ and has relief mouldings to either side. The porch has a shaped parapet of moulded stone and a central label, and banded brickwork that continues across the main elevation. Above, there is polychromatic brickwork and another panel, inscribed ‘SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE / WATERWORKS COMPANY /1935’. The large windows are lined in brick and have ogee arches with brick and tile detailing and a stone scroll keystone. Windows are metal-framed with glazing bars forming multiple lights. There is a window above on either side with marginal, oval and radial glazing bars. A stone string course articulates the parapet, which consists of a band of brick with diamond patterns, topped with stepped moulded stone. The roof, concealed by the parapet, is hipped with a central glazed section. The elevation has stepped angles, and return elevations are double-height with windows as on the principal elevation. The building steps down to a single storey towards the rear, where detailing is pared back: windows have flat arches with chamfered stone lintels.

INTERIOR: the main space within the building is the double-height engine hall; it is lit by the large windows on three sides, and a glazed lantern in the hipped roof. Two wells are surrounded by tubular railings, serviced from above by a gantry crane manufactured by Herbert Morris Ltd of Loughborough. There is a scheme of red tiling to the base of the walls, a soldier course of green tiles, and cream tiles above. Moulded stone is used for architraves and a wide bresummer, and features stepped angles and nailhead motifs. Some panelled and glazed timber doors survive. The roof is supported on steel trusses with braces and rods. A foundation plaque records the dates of construction, directors, secretary and engineer. The single-storey section of the building to the rear contains the manager’s offices and toilets.

Sources

Websites
The History of South Staffordshire Waterworks Company 1853 – 1989, Johann Van Leerzem & Brian Williams, accessed 30/05/23 from https://southstaffswaterarchives.org.uk/SSHISTRY2.pdf
'History', South Staffs Water, accessed 30/05/23 from https://www.south-staffs-water.co.uk/about-us/our-business/history

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