The director of the most complete Victorian pumping station in the country has big hopes for the site in the new year – after it was removed from Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register following a £500,000 restoration project.
Papplewick Pumping Station, in Rigg Lane, Ravenshead, has all of its original features, machinery, and grounds – including the ornate pump house which features two 13-tonne beam engines that still work today.
Constructed between 1882 and 1886 in a Gothic Revival style, the pumping station provided fresh water to people in Nottingham for almost 100 years.
It was in continuous operation until 1969, before later opening as a museum in 1975 under a trust.
“Three pieces have been restored – the boundary wall, the engine house porch, and the chimney as well,” Mr Smart said.
The 120-feet tall chimney had been deteriorating – with chunks of brick falling from above – before its restoration.
“When the team put scaffolding up on the chimney, they found it had a lean to it, more than we had thought,” Mr Smart continued.
“It’s an amazing view up there. It has been re-pointed, and we’ve replaced bricks that were falling. That was the risk.”
He recalled the chimney had been hastily capped off with a concrete slab when the pumping station first closed in 1969.
Later in 1975, when the trust that took over fired up the boilers, steam couldn’t escape and caused quite the stir for people observing from the engine room, Mr Smart said.
The chimney cap was later removed, allowing the site to function as it does today.
As well as the chimney, a green decorative porch on the engine house has been rebuilt and repainted, while the site’s boundary wall has been refurbished.
Money for the project came from Arts Council England‘s Museum Estate and Development (MEND) fund, as well as Historic England and the site’s landlord, Severn Trent Water.
Dozens of volunteers keep the pumping station in full working order.
Maintenance work includes topping up the beam engines with oil, which have 96 individual top-up points across each colossal structure.
Ornate décor in the engine house, depicting the life-giving properties of water, has also been seen to by the volunteers and repainted.
Under new plans, which have been resubmitted to Gedling Borough Council this year, a new multifunctional space to facilitate an exhibition and dining area could be created.
An open-air café dining area would be complimented by an adjoining exhibition space, separated by a glass wall.
The visitor centre would be built in the style of a nearby coal shed, and act as shelter for a number of other relics from Nottinghamshire’s past.
“What we hope for the future is that we can have a new structure that can cover the engines that are outside and exposed to the weather, and also an area where we can do temporary exhibitions and other displays at the front of that building,” Mr Smart added.
“Hopefully next year we will get that all approved and we can start getting a quantity surveyor in to give us an idea of the actual costs, and then we can go out and start fundraising.
“For us we are maintaining the past. Other people enjoy coming here to learn about the past, but also enjoy the beautiful surroundings, the grounds, the pond, the buildings themselves. It is a very peaceful place and people do comment on that.”
Mr Smart says the maintaining the pumping station is further helped along thanks to his idea to host weddings on the site.
Since he first enacted the idea in 2008, the station now hosts around 15 weddings every year.
Visitor facilities were first built in 1991, and a major restoration of the beam engines and pump house was completed in 2005, following a £1.6m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
As well as the beam engines, the site houses several other engines, which are also demonstrated on steaming days.
One is a colliery winding engine from the nearby Linby Colliery, which was built by Robey & Co of Lincoln in 1922.
It is the only operational steam-powered winder in Britain.
Outside the main engine building is a triple expansion engine, made by the Kilmarnock firm of Glenfield & Co. in 1897.
It was used at Stanton Ironworks near Ilkeston, where it supplied the site with hydraulic power.
In 2002, two engines were obtained by the museum from Player’s Tobacco Factory.
A single-cylinder oil engine, which formerly generated power for the arc lights on the projector at Bolsover Cinema, is also kept at the museum.
