I had to drive down to London recently, so stopped off at Panshanger Park near Welwyn, where three hydraulic rams are marked on old OS maps.
All are on the Mimram River, which meanders through the valley of the former Panshanger Estate, landscaped by Repton into a series of artificial lakes called Broad Water.
It’s a nice place - unlike much of the overcrowded ’sarf’ there’s a noticeable amount of wildlife, with dragonflies, birdies and whatnot.
1. The first site is shown as a ‘pumping station’ in 1879, and a ‘hydraulic ram’ on later maps.
It turned out to be a water wheel pump, almost invisible at first under weeds and a fallen tree so some clearing up was required.
The shallow weir which diverted water through a pipe into a short entrance channel.
On the inside wall of pump house is the remains of a sluice gate.
The pump had two single-acting plungers driven in unison by the central eccentric although bits are missing - there was no makers name that I could find.
2. The next ‘hydraulic ram’ downstream, appearing on maps between 1879 and 1897, also turned out to be a water wheel pump - in fact a more complete version of the first one.
The weir here is more substantial and again the pump was initially almost invisible.
There’s enough left to see that the plungers were connected by a rectangular framework, which was moved left and right by the projection on the rotating disk, maybe via a ‘Scotch yoke’, or a similar mechanism.
I couldn’t see a maker’s name on this one either.
Where the water went back to the river, with the weir in the background.
3. The next pump isn’t marked on maps at all, but I knew it was there since there are a couple of pictures online, probably because it’s near a footpath.
It has a rather old school design probably dating to the mid 1800s, give or take a few decades, with vertical pump cylinders and an up-and-over mechanism like a beam engine.
As it says on the framework, it was made by Horsfields, who according to Grace’s Guide produced a variety of things including hydraulic machinery and steam engines.
Aside from the ‘Windrush’ pumps which have wooden beams I’ve only come across a couple of all-iron designs, the closest being a see-saw type pump on the River Tern in Shropshire.
4. The fourth site is labelled as a ‘hydraulic ram’, appearing between 1897 and 1922, and did in fact have a ram under all the undergrowth
It’s a compound Vulcan but I’ll defer an explanation of how this differs from the more familiar Blake variety until discussing a better preserved example in Gloucs.
This one is rather bashed - the concrete roof has apparently fallen in, getting wedged diagonally across the ram pit and fracturing the base.
Before and after.
The diverting weir, which has a larger fall than the others.
These pumps were installed sometime during the stewardships of the 5th to 7th Earls of Cowper at Panshanger, but I haven’t found any description of why they were needed.
The ram was providing drinkable water, and the other ones may have been if there is/was a suitable source nearby - otherwise they would have been pumping river water for general estate use.
All are on the Mimram River, which meanders through the valley of the former Panshanger Estate, landscaped by Repton into a series of artificial lakes called Broad Water.
It’s a nice place - unlike much of the overcrowded ’sarf’ there’s a noticeable amount of wildlife, with dragonflies, birdies and whatnot.
1. The first site is shown as a ‘pumping station’ in 1879, and a ‘hydraulic ram’ on later maps.
It turned out to be a water wheel pump, almost invisible at first under weeds and a fallen tree so some clearing up was required.
The shallow weir which diverted water through a pipe into a short entrance channel.
On the inside wall of pump house is the remains of a sluice gate.
The pump had two single-acting plungers driven in unison by the central eccentric although bits are missing - there was no makers name that I could find.
2. The next ‘hydraulic ram’ downstream, appearing on maps between 1879 and 1897, also turned out to be a water wheel pump - in fact a more complete version of the first one.
The weir here is more substantial and again the pump was initially almost invisible.
There’s enough left to see that the plungers were connected by a rectangular framework, which was moved left and right by the projection on the rotating disk, maybe via a ‘Scotch yoke’, or a similar mechanism.
I couldn’t see a maker’s name on this one either.
Where the water went back to the river, with the weir in the background.
3. The next pump isn’t marked on maps at all, but I knew it was there since there are a couple of pictures online, probably because it’s near a footpath.
It has a rather old school design probably dating to the mid 1800s, give or take a few decades, with vertical pump cylinders and an up-and-over mechanism like a beam engine.
As it says on the framework, it was made by Horsfields, who according to Grace’s Guide produced a variety of things including hydraulic machinery and steam engines.
Aside from the ‘Windrush’ pumps which have wooden beams I’ve only come across a couple of all-iron designs, the closest being a see-saw type pump on the River Tern in Shropshire.
4. The fourth site is labelled as a ‘hydraulic ram’, appearing between 1897 and 1922, and did in fact have a ram under all the undergrowth
It’s a compound Vulcan but I’ll defer an explanation of how this differs from the more familiar Blake variety until discussing a better preserved example in Gloucs.
This one is rather bashed - the concrete roof has apparently fallen in, getting wedged diagonally across the ram pit and fracturing the base.
Before and after.
The diverting weir, which has a larger fall than the others.
These pumps were installed sometime during the stewardships of the 5th to 7th Earls of Cowper at Panshanger, but I haven’t found any description of why they were needed.
The ram was providing drinkable water, and the other ones may have been if there is/was a suitable source nearby - otherwise they would have been pumping river water for general estate use.
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