A tale of local pumps for local people.
I first came across an unusual design of waterwheel pump in the Cotswolds last year - there wasn’t much left, but it evidently had a mechanism involving oscillating overhead beams.
Later the same day I found two more examples, one quite complete.
A couple more trips this year netted a whole bunch more, all clustered around the eastern end of the hills (red dots).
The only information I can find is a single paper published by the Gloucestershire Society for Industrial Archeology
https://gsia.org.uk/sites/reprints/1997/gi199752.pdf, where these are called Windrush Double Beam Pumps.
Windrush because they are mostly in the catchment area of the River Windrush - yes, the immigration boat was named after this river.
They were all made between the late 1800s and the early 1900s by one firm, Charles East and Son, based in Burford.
East and Son are described in trade directories as ironmongers, engineers and water contractors, and obviously did good business supplying pumps to local estates.
This is a typical design, taken from the paper.
And a picture of the Burford works, ca 1890.
Waterwheel pumps normally have horizontal pump cylinders coupled directly to the wheel crank.
However East had a patent on a type of valve with a floating ball which only worked when mounted vertically, hence the up and over arrangement.
With a fairly lightweight, flexible transmission and a short pump stroke these devices evidently didn’t need elaborate parallel linkages, or movable pivots (as in the Grasshopper design for beam engines).
There are a lot of (phone) pictures below since there turned out to be 15 of these things, in varying states of completeness, and they might as well all go in one post.
Pictures were taken mostly to show what’s left and how it works rather than some exercise in derp photography - as far I know these are the only photos available for any of them.
Icomb. Starting with first one I found, near Icomb, which appears on maps between 1882 and 1900 (with a similar date range for most of the rest).
Before and after a bit of excavation.
The remains of the beams are now dangling, but would have been horizontal and attached to part of the pump house.
Next to the pump is a cistern for the water being pumped, probably filled from a spring.
The water from streams and rivers in agricultural areas is normally undrinkable, particularly in the Cotswolds where runoff from intensive farming has polluted everything.
This is probably the reason I’ve only seen a couple of frogs on my trips to this part of the world where there would normally be loads in the damp places where these pumps live.
Remains of the inlet pipe, top left, with water diverted from a stream nearby.
Kineton. There’s a bit of stuff being stored in here but but the essential features are there - wheel (missing its paddles), vertical pumps linked by overhead beams, fresh water tank.
Eastington. I couldn’t get close since the door was nailed shut, but from pictures over the door most of it seems to be there.
The water came down a long leat and entered from the back about half way up the wheel - this entrance has been bricked up.
The two pumps can just be glimpsed at floor level although I couldn’t get a clear picture of either.
Heythrop. Two pumps near each other, the first of which was one-sided with a single pump and overhead beam, and looked as if it was designed that way.
There’s a small empty shed with some wiring on top of the pump house which may have contained a later electrical pump, taking water from the original cistern below.
continued
I first came across an unusual design of waterwheel pump in the Cotswolds last year - there wasn’t much left, but it evidently had a mechanism involving oscillating overhead beams.
Later the same day I found two more examples, one quite complete.
A couple more trips this year netted a whole bunch more, all clustered around the eastern end of the hills (red dots).
The only information I can find is a single paper published by the Gloucestershire Society for Industrial Archeology
https://gsia.org.uk/sites/reprints/1997/gi199752.pdf, where these are called Windrush Double Beam Pumps.
Windrush because they are mostly in the catchment area of the River Windrush - yes, the immigration boat was named after this river.
They were all made between the late 1800s and the early 1900s by one firm, Charles East and Son, based in Burford.
East and Son are described in trade directories as ironmongers, engineers and water contractors, and obviously did good business supplying pumps to local estates.
This is a typical design, taken from the paper.
And a picture of the Burford works, ca 1890.
Waterwheel pumps normally have horizontal pump cylinders coupled directly to the wheel crank.
However East had a patent on a type of valve with a floating ball which only worked when mounted vertically, hence the up and over arrangement.
With a fairly lightweight, flexible transmission and a short pump stroke these devices evidently didn’t need elaborate parallel linkages, or movable pivots (as in the Grasshopper design for beam engines).
There are a lot of (phone) pictures below since there turned out to be 15 of these things, in varying states of completeness, and they might as well all go in one post.
Pictures were taken mostly to show what’s left and how it works rather than some exercise in derp photography - as far I know these are the only photos available for any of them.
Icomb. Starting with first one I found, near Icomb, which appears on maps between 1882 and 1900 (with a similar date range for most of the rest).
Before and after a bit of excavation.
The remains of the beams are now dangling, but would have been horizontal and attached to part of the pump house.
Next to the pump is a cistern for the water being pumped, probably filled from a spring.
The water from streams and rivers in agricultural areas is normally undrinkable, particularly in the Cotswolds where runoff from intensive farming has polluted everything.
This is probably the reason I’ve only seen a couple of frogs on my trips to this part of the world where there would normally be loads in the damp places where these pumps live.
Remains of the inlet pipe, top left, with water diverted from a stream nearby.
Kineton. There’s a bit of stuff being stored in here but but the essential features are there - wheel (missing its paddles), vertical pumps linked by overhead beams, fresh water tank.
Eastington. I couldn’t get close since the door was nailed shut, but from pictures over the door most of it seems to be there.
The water came down a long leat and entered from the back about half way up the wheel - this entrance has been bricked up.
The two pumps can just be glimpsed at floor level although I couldn’t get a clear picture of either.
Heythrop. Two pumps near each other, the first of which was one-sided with a single pump and overhead beam, and looked as if it was designed that way.
There’s a small empty shed with some wiring on top of the pump house which may have contained a later electrical pump, taking water from the original cistern below.
continued
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