South
Staffordshire Waterworks
Wood Green Pumping Station
Wood Green Depot (Workshops)
Brunswick Park Road Wednesbury
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By David M Coldicott |
| (The following short
history has been compiled from various sources including notes
from Johann Van Leerzem and Brian Williams)
The site was first purchased and used for
a repumping / booster station to enable the water from the
Company’s first works at Lichfield to be boosted to
the higher levels of the then supply area. The water from
Lichfield was distributed in water mains laid alongside
the railway track.
The Company’s’ founders were also connected
with the railway development at that time. The location
of the Wood Green Booster Pumping Station was adjacent to
the railway track in Brunswick Park Road Wednesbury. (This
area is residential and the pumping station buildings are
a dominant feature of the district.) |
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Sidings were constructed to facilitate
the delivery of coal for the boilers, which supplied the
steam to the steam pumping engines. The original pumping
plant was commissioned in 1871, supplied by James Watt and
Company. The site initially commenced at the corner of Park
Hill and Brunswick Park Road. There were some “cottages”,
(probably two) for the pumping plant operatives, which faced
onto Park Hill. There was also the boiler house and the
James Watt engine house.
Over the years the pumping plant was replaced
and modernised by various manufacturers. The second steam
engine was supplied by Harvey and Company from Hale in Cornwall
(who made steam engines for the Cornish mining industry),
and the third update by Gallaways of Manchester. The first
update began with the construction of a new engine house
to house the Harvey and Co engine. This building was attached
to the existing James Watt engine house. If you visit the
site you may observe the vertical join in the two tall buildings.
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The photograph shows the
original James Watt engine house to right adjacent to the
chimneystack and with the original boiler house now painted
white to the right. The Harvey & Co engine house was
built onto the original one. The join is to the left of
the green down pipe. Note that the site is now split into
industrial units. |
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The join of the James Watt
engine house, which is on the right, and the Harvey &
Co engine house on the left can be seen to the left of the
green down pipe. The last engine house and new boiler house
were built at the Wednesbury end of the site to accommodate
the Gallaway engine. The last modernisation saw the Gallaway
engine replaced by Sulzer pumps driven by Mather and Platt
electric motors. |
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The photograph shows the Gallaway engine
house - tall building to the right with the new boiler house
adjacent now painted white. In addition, houses were built
to accommodate the pumping station personnel. The steam
engines in this engine house were replaced by the installation
of electrically driven pumps supplied by Sulzer Brothersof
Switzerland. In the 1920s a steam driven turbine was installed
driving an alternator to provide power for the Sulzer pumps.
This was located in an enclosed turbine room located within
the then boiler house, which in later years also housed
a water fittings testing section and a water meter repair
and test facility.
In the mid 1970s the pumping station become
redundant with the commissioning of a new booster station
at Walsall. Over several decades the Wood Green site was
developed into various workshops for the maintenances and
repair of pumping plant, which also included some manufacturing
of pumping plant parts and associated water distribution
fittings. This site development commenced when the Company
started to carry out repairs and maintenance to its engineering
plant utilising the Companies’ own directly employed
labour force. In 1920 redundant pumping station buildings
and boiler house were utilised to centralise stores and
establish an administration office.
In the 1930s some of the original houses
and other buildings were demolished to provide land for
the construction of a “modern” centralised stores,
carpentry/joiners shop and a vehicle/plant maintenance workshop.
Old pump rooms were used for engineering machine shop with
electrically driven machine tools. |
|
Machinist at his large
lathe. The machine shop was located on the 1st floor of
the old pumping station that once housed the beam engine
manufactured by Harvey & Company. The large cast columns
that supported the beam of the steam engine still existed
in 2006. |
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The Central Stores building
as it was in 2006. It was built on the site of the original
Company cottages associated with the James Watt booster
station. On the site a testing shop was established to test
all apparatus and fittings that were to be connected to
the water supply. Over the years many thousands of water
fittings were tested and stamped, this activity became unnecessary
with the introduction of national Water Regulations and
British Standards. Other activities included a water meter
repair and testing shop, welders / fabrication shop, and
an electricians shop. |
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Photograph showing operatives
clearing snow, note the combination domestic water tanks
which were tested and stamped in the Fittings Testing shop.
In 1957 the Company purchased the railway sidings, which
were originally established for the delivery of coal for
the steam driven pumping plant. The additional land was
utilised for the storage of plant. The blacksmiths shop
was also constructed on this land. |
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Picture of blacksmith,
in the Blacksmith’s Shop. In 1981 the whole of the
site was sold to a local businessman. The activities of
Workshops, Stores, Joiners/Carpenters and Garage workshops
being transferred to purpose built facilities at Green Lane
Walsall. The majority of the original buildings at Wood
Green (Brunswick Park Road) still exist- 2006 and are used
as industrial units, although some of the buildings may
be demolished to allow for residential development. |
