Stretham Old Engine

Stretham Old Engine
Cambridgeshire
Location
Grid reference:	TL51667301
Location:	52°20’3"N, -0°13’28"E
Village:	Stretham
History
Information

Stretham Old Engine is a steam-powered engine just south of Stretham in the middle of Cambridgeshire: it was used to pump water from flood-affected areas of the Great Fen back into the River Great Ouse.

This is one of only three surviving drainage engines in East Anglia, and is a Grade II* listed building.

History

During the 17th century, large areas of the Great Fen were drained to create rich farmland, using extensive draining schemes. Despite this, crops and livestock were frequently swept away by widescale flooding as the land sank because of the drainage. As a partial solution, windpumps were used to pump water away from flood-affected areas, but relied on the weather and lacked the power required to lift large quantities of water.

(Wicken Fen nature reserve has a preserved and restored windpump, used to manage the water table in the Fen, although this reserve is itself the result of deliberate reflooding of the farmland.)

The advent of steam power in the late 18th century offered a new solution, and these new engines began to spring up around The Fens.

Steam engine

Scoop wheel of the Stretham Old Engine

The steam engine on the Old West River (Great Ouse) just south of Stretham was built by the Butterley Company of Derbyshire in 1831, at a cost of £4,950. It replaced four nearby windmills and its scoop wheel was used successfully for over a century to lift water from flood channels back into the river. Powered by coal that was brought by barge, it consumed a ton of fuel every four hours.

The rotative beam engine is of the double-acting type with a beam of 24 feet 8 inches and a flywheel 24 feet in diameter. The scoop wheel it drives has been successively enlarged as the level of the fens has shrunk: the first wheel was 29 feet, increased to 33 feet in 1850 and to 37 feet 2 inches in 1896 and lifted 120-150 tons of water a minute.

During use, the engine needed constant supervision, with the stoker and superintendent on 24-hour call. One superintendent even installed a telescope in his window so he could supervise the workmen without the need to get his feet wet.

Replacement

In 1924, the installation of a Mirrlees diesel engine saw the steam engine relegated to 'standby', and the last serious use was during the floods of 1939 and 1940. Prickwillow Museum contains a nearly identical Mirrlees diesel engine that has been preserved and restored to working order. The pumping station was later replaced with five smaller, more efficient, electrical pumps that drain into the River Cam and are still in use.

Public opening

The engine is open to the public on Sunday afternoons and Bank Holidays from the beginning of April to the end of October between 1.00pm and 5.00pm.

Pictures

Interior views

Main cylinder head (foreground); valve cylinder (background); machine hall and flywheel Main cylinder head (foreground); valve cylinder (background); machine hall and flywheel   The beam in the beam room. The beam room also acts as a museum. The beam in the beam room. The beam room also acts as a museum.   View of the engine View of the engine   1925 Mirrlees diesel 1925 Mirrlees diesel   Butterley Co. boilers Butterley Co. boilers

See also

• Pinchbeck Engine
• Dogdyke Pumping Station

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Stretham Old Engine)

• Stretham Old Engine

References

• The Steam Pumping Station at Stretham, Cambridgeshire by EJA Kenny and R L Hills, Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 1963-4 Vol 236.
• Hills, R L (1965). Official Guide The Stretham Engine.