Mill Meece Pumping Station

By Barry Job

It has been a long wait. After nine years the mighty horizontal compound tandem steam engines by Ashton Frost and by Hathorn Davey at Mill Meece in Staffordshire are now back in steam. The pumping station was commissioned in 1914 to compliment the nearby Hatton Pumping station to supply the expanding Staffordshire Pottery Towns with water. They undertook this vital task pumping 5 million gallons of water every day until December 1979 when they were replaced by electric pumps. Fortunately they went straight into preservation. The engines and site have been maintained by a dedicated band of volunteers and has regularly been open to the public, but in 2012 corrosion spelt the end of fires being lit in the Lancashire boilers and the pumping station reverted to static viewing.

Severn Trent Water, the owners, commissioned contractors to rebuild the boiler flues and boiler supports and reinstate the boilers and pipework in addition to other vital tasks around the site. With this work completed the coronavirus restrictions prevented the site being opened to the public until the official opening by Sarah Stimpson, Head of Severn Trent Property Services, on Saturday 14th August. The day was marked by a rally for stationary engines and classic cars, Sunday the 15th was for stationary engines and classic motorcycles.

Both days were extremely well supported. There was a varied selection of stationary engines, both large and small, with some rare examples from America plus traditional British makes such as Ruston Hornsby and Lister. There were considerably more classic cars on site than has been seen on previous open days and similarly on the Sunday with over 200 motorcycles in attendance during the day. The public also attended in good numbers, the event was free to come in but this was more than compensated for by the tea room takings and donations.

Coronavirus permitting, the site will be open for static viewing Sunday afternoons with a series of steaming weekends coupled with rallys at specified weekends.

Sarah Stimpson, Head of Severn Trent Property Services, performed the official opening ceremony

For further information.visit their website: www.millmeecepumpingstation.co.uk

The design of Brian Lightfoot's 1927 1.5 hp Ruston Hornsby ZPR s/n 146637 makes for a light engine

This American engine was actually manufactured by Nelson Brothers in 1922 who sold it to Montgomery Ward who themselves marketed it as a 1.5 hp Sattley s/n 75280 The 2 hp Canadian Massey Harris "Hit and Miss" engine s/n N268 was built in Toronto, Ontario, in 1917 and was exhibited by Paul Edwards

Brought from Nantwich by Roy Morris his horizontal enclosed crank 3 hp Bradford was made in Shipley, Yorkshire, in 1940

The 4 cylinder Caterpillar D315 diesel engines were introduced in 1947, the crossflow head design produced considerably more power than the previous model. Nick Cox's example was demonstrated producing power for lighting stands (and a kettle!) Dan Ditchburn's Witte s/n 52470 was built in Kansas City in 1921 to a simple headless design, surprisingly the spark plug is sited in the valve block yet the engine runs wel