Bestwood Pumping Station

Bestwood Pumping Station
Nottinghamshire
Bestwood Pumping Station
Type:	Pumping station
Location
Grid reference:	SK57934824
Location:	53°1’42"N, 1°8’16"W
History
	Built 1871 – 1874
For:	Nottingham Water Company by Thomas Hawksley
	Pumping station
	Venetian Gothic Revival
Information
Condition:	Converted to other uses

Bestwood Pumping Station is a water pumping station in Nottinghamshire which operated from 1874 until 1964, and whose buildings still stand, undergoing conversion to more seemly commercial use.

History

The Pumping Station was built between 1871 and 1874 on land belonging to William Beauclerk, 10th Duke of St Albans. It was commissioned by the Nottingham Water Company and designed by Thomas Hawksley, who was also responsible for the Papplewick Pumping Station, also built to supply Nottingham. Several of the structures on site are listed including the pump house, lodges, landscaped ornamental cooling pond, several cast iron lamps and the boundary walls.

The chimney stands 172 feet high and is concealed and disguised as a huge campanile topped by a cupola.

In its day, the station was equipped with two 125-hp rotative beam engines built by Joseph Whitham and Son, Leeds. The pumping station yielded more than 3½ million gallons a day from the pebble beds. It pumped water through two 18-inch mains to Red Hill reservoir and one 18-inch main to the Papplewick reservoir.

The steam pump operated until 1964, when a new electric pump house was built. The steam engines were removed between 1968 and 1972.

Current use

The Venetian Gothic Revival style buildings still stand, clearly seen from the main A60 road. Its tower makes the building a local landmark.

The site was vacant and boarded-up until Healthworks Co bought it. Starting in 1997 there has been a £2 million conversion of the pumping station to a restaurant and health club complex.

See also

• Papplewick Pumping Station
• Boughton Pumping Station

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Bestwood Pumping Station)