| Summary : Westonzoyland steam pumping station was built circa 1830 for the draining of the Weston Level. The group of buildings which form the station are constructed from Flemish bond brick with double-Roman and pantiled roofs. The engine house, square on plan, is two-storeys high and has a further attached two-storey range to the south, a single storey outshut to the east and a range of single storey outbuildings. Abutting the engine house is a tall plain tapering 21.5 metre chimney, square on plan. Inside the engine house there is an Appold steam drainage engine and pump, built by Easton and Amos of Southwark in 1861. The station and pump were superseded by a diesel engined pump in the adjacent new building in 1951. The old pumping station fell into disrepair until 1977 when a group of local enthusiasts, members of the Somerset Industrial Archaeology Society, with the consent of Wessex Water, the then owners of the site, restored the engine and ran it occasionally. This group became the Westonzoyland Engine Trust, and acquired charitable status in 1980. Since 1977, the Trust has created a museum of steam power and land drainage, in order to display a considerable number of steam pumps and engines which have been brought to the site. In 1990 the Trust purchased the site and buildings from Wessex Water and has since rebuilt the chimney, stabilised the engine house structure, rebuilt the pump house and built a new exhibition hall. |
More information : (ST 33963283). Pumping Station (NAT) (1)
ST 340328. The Steam Pumping Station which was used for draining the
Weston Level. Engine and pump date from 1861 and replaced a beam
engine and scoop wheel of 1830 - reputedly the first steam-pump on
the Somerset Levels. The existing engine, by Easton and Amos, is
a true vertical engine, and connects with an Appold pump in a well
beneath. The engine has now been put into working order, and a Steam
and Land Drainage Museum is to be set up on the site, under an
independent group. (2-3)
ST 340328. Enginehouse and engine described in text and accompanied by a photograph. (4)
Listed. For the designated record please see The National Heritage List for England. (5-6)
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