Continuing with water-powered stuff, another collection of ram pumps - see the previous post or Google if you want to know what these are.
Once widely used to pump water for houses and drinking troughs, most now languish in out-of-the-way corners of the countryside.
The four sites (six rams) featured here are all behind the dams of artificial lakes, powered by the lake water and also pumping it.
Pictures are mostly phone.
Starting with a couple near Ashbourne, these appear on maps between 1900 and 1920 and may have supplied water to a large house.
The lake and the filtration tank at the top of the dam through which the water was fed down to the rams in a hut.
Both rams were made by Blake, who seem to be the most common manufacturer in the Midlands.
The smaller, older one has a broken air tank and what may be a filter tank next to it.
In a field nearby is what looks like a little pumping house; although not named as such it appears on a 1841 map.
It was empty except for a larger version of the tank in the ram hut.
Next is a ram near Enville, present by 1901.
This was invisible at first under the collapsed remains of its partially underground hut as the picture on the left below shows.
After a bit of excavation it proved to be another Blake.
I then had a quick look at something called ‘engine house’ since it was next to another lake nearby.
For what was once quite a large structure it’s surprising it doesn’t seem to be recorded anywhere, at least online.
There isn’t much left except the front facade and a network of partially collapsed tunnels in the fenced-off area behind (warning, some deep holes here hidden by the undergrowth).
It probably contained a beam engine and may have been to fill a reservoir for fountains on the Enville Estate.
Some more lakeside rams, this time near Newborough, appearing on maps between 1882 and 1900.
For a change these weren’t Blakes, but two of the other major manufacturers, Easton and Anderson (London) and Green and Carter (Winchester).
The names can just about be made out on the air tanks which are covered in gunky paint.
Finally another one below a dam, probably a Blake although the label has gone.
The dam has a curved rear wall with several openings.
The leftmost hole didn’t go far, the middle one looked like the plug…
…and the nearest was for the overflow. It was only about 3.5 ft high so I didn’t go up it.
The ram is in a chamber nearby - there used to be two but one has gone.
The water came down pipes pipes running up another tunnel through the dam.
There are plenty more of these things if you care to look for them.
Once widely used to pump water for houses and drinking troughs, most now languish in out-of-the-way corners of the countryside.
The four sites (six rams) featured here are all behind the dams of artificial lakes, powered by the lake water and also pumping it.
Pictures are mostly phone.
Starting with a couple near Ashbourne, these appear on maps between 1900 and 1920 and may have supplied water to a large house.
The lake and the filtration tank at the top of the dam through which the water was fed down to the rams in a hut.
Both rams were made by Blake, who seem to be the most common manufacturer in the Midlands.
The smaller, older one has a broken air tank and what may be a filter tank next to it.
In a field nearby is what looks like a little pumping house; although not named as such it appears on a 1841 map.
It was empty except for a larger version of the tank in the ram hut.
Next is a ram near Enville, present by 1901.
This was invisible at first under the collapsed remains of its partially underground hut as the picture on the left below shows.
After a bit of excavation it proved to be another Blake.
I then had a quick look at something called ‘engine house’ since it was next to another lake nearby.
For what was once quite a large structure it’s surprising it doesn’t seem to be recorded anywhere, at least online.
There isn’t much left except the front facade and a network of partially collapsed tunnels in the fenced-off area behind (warning, some deep holes here hidden by the undergrowth).
It probably contained a beam engine and may have been to fill a reservoir for fountains on the Enville Estate.
Some more lakeside rams, this time near Newborough, appearing on maps between 1882 and 1900.
For a change these weren’t Blakes, but two of the other major manufacturers, Easton and Anderson (London) and Green and Carter (Winchester).
The names can just about be made out on the air tanks which are covered in gunky paint.
Finally another one below a dam, probably a Blake although the label has gone.
The dam has a curved rear wall with several openings.
The leftmost hole didn’t go far, the middle one looked like the plug…
…and the nearest was for the overflow. It was only about 3.5 ft high so I didn’t go up it.
The ram is in a chamber nearby - there used to be two but one has gone.
The water came down pipes pipes running up another tunnel through the dam.
There are plenty more of these things if you care to look for them.
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