More information : Lade Bank Pumping Station was built in 1867. Victorian building and chimney remain. Remains of a lock are alongside the station. (1)
Lade Bank Lock was built in 1805 by John Rennie and consisted of a lock of 4 cutwaters and 2 abutments all of keeled plan with gritstone cappings, with grooves and fixings for lock gates.
In 1867 the Lade Bank Pumping Station was built and remodelled in 1938. It is made of red brick, red and yellow brick and has slate roofs with raised stone-coped gables and kneelers. The station includes an engine house and tall chimney.
The pumping station is single storey, with a seven bay front. It has semi-circular headed windows which retain the original cast iron glazing bars and have red and yellow banded voussoirs. There is a tall square tapering brick chimney in Italianate style which has a triple plinth to the base and tall red brick recessed panels to the sides, with yellow brick angles and imposts. The top of the chimney is corbelled out with moulded bands. There is a contemporary wrought iron weather vane.
The engine house contained six boilers to raise the steam to operate the two pumps. The pumping station has been replaced by a modern station of 1938 also partly built on the original lock bases. The 1867 pumping station was built when the shrinking of the peat in the East Fen meant that the fen could no longer be drained by gravity, and the water had to be pumped into the higher southern half of Hobhole Drain. (2)
Lade Bank Pumping Station was built in 1867 as a consequence of peat shrinkage in the Eastern Fen. This lowered the land surface and the water had to be pumped into the higher southern half of the Hobhole Drain. In 1940 diesel pumps were installed in a new pump station. The Victorian building and chimney still remain. Next to the pumping station are the remains of a lock built by John Rennie in 1805. (3)
The Hobhole Drain is a broad canal, part of the Witham Navigable Drains. It runs for 13 miles and 6½ furlongs from Hobhole New Pumping Station to Hobhole Drain Head of Navigation. (4)
In 1867 the Witham Drainage (Fourth District) Act enabled steam pumping engines to be installed at Lade Bank, as well as channels to be dug. This was to enable West Fen water to flow to Hobhole Sluice instead of Maud Foster sluice in bad conditions. In 1940 oil engines were installed in the New Lade Bank Pumping Station built alongside the earlier building. (5) |