Introduction
Me and @Wastelandr recently met up to cover a couple of places in Essex, this one was initially seen as a bit of a filler location thinking it would be sealed or empty but to our surprise, it had some nice old equipment within, in addition to old paperwork amongst other nice little details. I have put this into NP for now as the access down the track is in direct view of a house and it is pretty much pristine with no vandalism and is an excellent example of its kind. If it was known about, I feel it would get tagged up and vandalised pretty quickly. It is one of the best examples of a pumping station I have seen to date.
Information & History
Bradwell Springs Pumping Station was constructed in 1928 and its purpose was to supply the nearby Silver End village. Silver End was a private model village that had a factory manufacturing metal windows, trading as the Crittall Manufacturing Company Ltd. Work started on the village in 1926 because Braintree, the town in which the main factory was located, couldn’t support the needs of the workforce. In the 1920s, more than half of Braintree’s population were Crittall workers. Silver End was entirely self-sufficient with its own public services such as shops, schools, and churches. Thanks to this pumping station, its entire water supply was also self-sufficient. Silver End is a very interesting place with several streets of Art Deco houses which are beautiful. The station was constructed near the River Blackwater at Bradwell Springs where there was a shallow well source. The source was thought out by Francis Henry Critall who funded the village.
In terms of the pumping equipment, the station originally housed two large diesel engines to power two large pumps. It was later upgraded with two large Harland Engineering centrifugal pumps rated at 30 B.H.P each. The pumps each have an electric motor connected to them with their own dedicated switchgear. The pumps themselves are dated 1947 but it is not known whether this was the time of the installation. The station was originally owned by the Silver End Development Company Limited until the site was taken over by the Witham U.D.C in July 1954. Later, it was owned by the Essex Water Company.
Below is a map dated between the 1970s/80s of all pumping stations and the trunk mains/pipelines that Essex Water Company owned at the time:
Essex Water was later acquired by Lyonnaise des Eaux in 1988 along with the Suffolk Water Company. These were later merged in the mid-nineties to become the Essex and Suffolk Water Company which still exists today.
Excess water that the station supplied was brought into the outskirts of Witham. Later on, complaints were received about leaking copper pipes caused by Bradwell Spring, this was resolved when the spring ceased use. It is thought the station stopped operating around 1970 judging by the paperwork, but it could well have been a bit later than this.
To the side of the station, there are two tanks dumped which initially looked to be steam boilers. This didn’t make sense as the station was only ever powered by oil engines and electric later on. The borehole scans mention a sand trap so these may have been sand filters. These would’ve filtered the sand and chlorinated the water making it safe to drink. This was an old way of filtering water and now new technologies such as UV treatment and flocculation are now more commonly used. Thanks to @mingerocket for the info on this and for providing the borehole record too.
The Explore
As mentioned at the beginning the access is via a track through a field where you are in direct view of a nearby house. Due to this, I tried going an alternative way first veering off from a nearby footpath and going alongside the river but unfortunately, it was completely flooded thanks to the recent rain we have had, so we had to go via the track. I saw the open door and walked in very excited, initially thinking it was empty and then seeing the equipment. I may have got a little too excited and think I scared Wastelandr a bit. The light was lovely coming through the windows to start with, but we started to lose light quickly as it was our last location of the day.
Photos
Getting externals was pretty difficult here thanks to the multitude of trees and vegetation, but I did the best I could to get a couple of overviews:
Heading inside, a lot of it is vast empty space as the old diesel engines and pumps would have taken up a lot of room hence the size of the building. I did really like the minimal industrial look, it gave me slight EU power station vibes. You can see newer concrete parts of the floor where the old pumps and/or engines used to be situated:
Some close-ups of the pumps and motors:
Looks like the pumps were originally green and then later painted blue, not sure why they would bother in a place like this where the public would never see it anyway:
There were some snippets of old newspapers dating back to the 1970s:
One of the name plates for the pumps. Harland Engineering supplied a lot of these old stations with pumps and I’ve seen quite a few now:
The switchgear for the electric motors is encased in these cabinets located next to each other. These would have acted as a mains breaker and possibly level control gear so that the pumps wouldn’t run if the water levels were too low in the spring:
The station was equipped with an old telephone:
It even has its own toilet:
Near the entrance, there is a small room housing some wall-mounted equipment with chlorine gauges to ensure bacteria was killed off during the chlorination process.
I love these old industrial light fixtures. I did try the light switch just in case but no power runs here anymore, you’d be surprised by how many of these disused stations have some sort of power still running to them:
On the wall towards the other door, there was an old chart recorder with its paper still inside. The middle of the paper reads Essex Water Company and Bradwell Springs:
Various old paperwork in good condition can still be found here:
A few other shots:
And finally, the old sand filter tanks:
Thanks for looking!
Me and @Wastelandr recently met up to cover a couple of places in Essex, this one was initially seen as a bit of a filler location thinking it would be sealed or empty but to our surprise, it had some nice old equipment within, in addition to old paperwork amongst other nice little details. I have put this into NP for now as the access down the track is in direct view of a house and it is pretty much pristine with no vandalism and is an excellent example of its kind. If it was known about, I feel it would get tagged up and vandalised pretty quickly. It is one of the best examples of a pumping station I have seen to date.
Information & History
Bradwell Springs Pumping Station was constructed in 1928 and its purpose was to supply the nearby Silver End village. Silver End was a private model village that had a factory manufacturing metal windows, trading as the Crittall Manufacturing Company Ltd. Work started on the village in 1926 because Braintree, the town in which the main factory was located, couldn’t support the needs of the workforce. In the 1920s, more than half of Braintree’s population were Crittall workers. Silver End was entirely self-sufficient with its own public services such as shops, schools, and churches. Thanks to this pumping station, its entire water supply was also self-sufficient. Silver End is a very interesting place with several streets of Art Deco houses which are beautiful. The station was constructed near the River Blackwater at Bradwell Springs where there was a shallow well source. The source was thought out by Francis Henry Critall who funded the village.
In terms of the pumping equipment, the station originally housed two large diesel engines to power two large pumps. It was later upgraded with two large Harland Engineering centrifugal pumps rated at 30 B.H.P each. The pumps each have an electric motor connected to them with their own dedicated switchgear. The pumps themselves are dated 1947 but it is not known whether this was the time of the installation. The station was originally owned by the Silver End Development Company Limited until the site was taken over by the Witham U.D.C in July 1954. Later, it was owned by the Essex Water Company.
Below is a map dated between the 1970s/80s of all pumping stations and the trunk mains/pipelines that Essex Water Company owned at the time:
Essex Water was later acquired by Lyonnaise des Eaux in 1988 along with the Suffolk Water Company. These were later merged in the mid-nineties to become the Essex and Suffolk Water Company which still exists today.
Excess water that the station supplied was brought into the outskirts of Witham. Later on, complaints were received about leaking copper pipes caused by Bradwell Spring, this was resolved when the spring ceased use. It is thought the station stopped operating around 1970 judging by the paperwork, but it could well have been a bit later than this.
To the side of the station, there are two tanks dumped which initially looked to be steam boilers. This didn’t make sense as the station was only ever powered by oil engines and electric later on. The borehole scans mention a sand trap so these may have been sand filters. These would’ve filtered the sand and chlorinated the water making it safe to drink. This was an old way of filtering water and now new technologies such as UV treatment and flocculation are now more commonly used. Thanks to @mingerocket for the info on this and for providing the borehole record too.
The Explore
As mentioned at the beginning the access is via a track through a field where you are in direct view of a nearby house. Due to this, I tried going an alternative way first veering off from a nearby footpath and going alongside the river but unfortunately, it was completely flooded thanks to the recent rain we have had, so we had to go via the track. I saw the open door and walked in very excited, initially thinking it was empty and then seeing the equipment. I may have got a little too excited and think I scared Wastelandr a bit. The light was lovely coming through the windows to start with, but we started to lose light quickly as it was our last location of the day.
Photos
Getting externals was pretty difficult here thanks to the multitude of trees and vegetation, but I did the best I could to get a couple of overviews:
Heading inside, a lot of it is vast empty space as the old diesel engines and pumps would have taken up a lot of room hence the size of the building. I did really like the minimal industrial look, it gave me slight EU power station vibes. You can see newer concrete parts of the floor where the old pumps and/or engines used to be situated:
Some close-ups of the pumps and motors:
Looks like the pumps were originally green and then later painted blue, not sure why they would bother in a place like this where the public would never see it anyway:
There were some snippets of old newspapers dating back to the 1970s:
One of the name plates for the pumps. Harland Engineering supplied a lot of these old stations with pumps and I’ve seen quite a few now:
The switchgear for the electric motors is encased in these cabinets located next to each other. These would have acted as a mains breaker and possibly level control gear so that the pumps wouldn’t run if the water levels were too low in the spring:
The station was equipped with an old telephone:
It even has its own toilet:
Near the entrance, there is a small room housing some wall-mounted equipment with chlorine gauges to ensure bacteria was killed off during the chlorination process.
I love these old industrial light fixtures. I did try the light switch just in case but no power runs here anymore, you’d be surprised by how many of these disused stations have some sort of power still running to them:
On the wall towards the other door, there was an old chart recorder with its paper still inside. The middle of the paper reads Essex Water Company and Bradwell Springs:
Various old paperwork in good condition can still be found here:
A few other shots:
And finally, the old sand filter tanks:
Thanks for looking!
