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Pump

Category

Historic Services / Water & sewage

Date

1865

Materials

cast iron

Collection

Cragside, Northumberland

NT 1232465

Summary

A historic system comprising Tumbleton Pump House and hydraulic engine driving rams pumping spring water from roof mounted tank. The machinery operates but no longer pumps water. It is now powered by an electrically pumped enclosed water circuit as a working example of this type of hydraulic engine.

Full description

A historic system comprising Tumbleton Pump House and hydraulic engine driving rams pumping spring water from roof mounted tank. The original portion of the Pump House was built to house the engine and pumps. The other part was a later addition to house a gas engine or similar and is now the visitors' viewing area. The roof of the engine room comprises a steel (formerly iron) tank capable of holding 24,000L or 5,000 gallons of spring water which could be filled in 24 hours. This is now display only.  The hydraulic engine 773HE is a horizontal, double reciprocating hydraulic engine driving an opposing pair of positive displacement plunger pumps. Powered by a 10.7m (35ft) head of water from Tumbleton dam, it could push spring water 85m (280 ft) to the basin tank above the mansion house. The machinery was restored between 1984 and 1987 by the British Engineerium and is capable of operating, although it does not pump water any longer. It is now powered by an electrically pumped enclosed water circuit as a working example of this type of hydraulic engine. In 1865 drought caused a water shortage at Cragside. Lord Armstrong [1810-1900] decided to dam Debdon burn to form Tumbleton lake and safeguard future water supplies. Equipment was built and housed in 1867-8 at the base of the dam in what is now known as Tumbleton Pump House, to push accumulated spring water from a roof mounted tank uphill to where it was needed on the estate. A 35ft head of water was provided to power a hydraulic engine which drove a pair of ram pumps. The apparatus was designed and manufactured by W.G. Armstrong & Co at the Elswick Works, Newcastle-on-Tyne for Cragside. A General arrangement drawing from the company’s archive is dated October 1867. [DS.VA/5/PL/21/5 Tyne & Wear Archive Service] This drawing shows the works number of the engine to 773HE (HE – Hydraulic Engine). This is confirmed by the Elswick works plan book entry for the machine [DS.VA/5/21/3 Tyne & Wear Archive Service]. It is further authenticated by a works number stamped on one of the hydraulic damper mounting collars. The engine was almost certainly designed by the drawing office at Elswick works, Newcastle, likely with the input of Sir William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong of Cragside (1810-1900), director of the company. Examination of the Elswick works plan books revealed the design of the valve chests are re-used from an earlier engine. Drawing 46HE from 8 April 1864 shows almost identical chests fitted to a hydraulic engine designed for Portland Breakwater. P700 of DS.VA 5/21/12 plan book shows works no. 904X, dated 17 January 1890, for Sir WGA, Rothbury. This is an order for brass valves and various linkages from drawings 46HE and 773HE, possibly a heavy overhaul or repair. The hydraulic engine was decommissioned in the 1920s and replaced by a gas engine installed in an extension of the pump house. Current investigations show traces of this installation, however as yet there is no evidence of how the gas engine took over pumping the water. The Tumbleton pump house has been subject to periodic flooding over the years. A level of 61 inches was recorded in 1946. The building was later filled with silt following a dam breach in 1946 partially burying the pump. The Pump House remained in this state until it was excavated by a Youth Training Scheme team c1981. The equipment was then dismantled and removed by the British Engineerium in October 1984 for examination and restoration. It was extremely deteriorated, and around 90% of the fixings had to be replaced, as well as a proportion of the valve gear, but a large percentage of the machinery is original. There are modern replacement materials inside the pump, not visible from the outside, to reinforce certain parts and to “reduce contact of water with the original cast iron pump” [‘William Armstrong’s Hydraulic Engine and Pumps at Cragside’ by Geoffrey Irlam, Autumn 1988 Industrial Archaeology Review Vol XI]. The restored engine was reinstated and recommissioned 1985-7. Parts of the Cragside estate, including Debdon burn and the Pump House were transferred by the Treasury to The National Trust in 1977 via the National Land Fund, aided by 3rd Baron Armstrong of Bamburgh and Cragside (1919 - 1987).

Provenance

Designed and manufactured by W. G. Armstrong & Co., at the Elswick works in Newcastle-on-Tyne, in 1867 and installed in the Pump House at Cragside c.1868. Possibly designed with direct input from Lord Armstrong [1810-1900]. Transferred by the Treasury to The National Trust in 1977 via the National Land Fund, aided by 3rd Baron Armstrong of Bamburgh and Cragside [1919-1987].

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