Volunteers spend 30 years restoring a Victorian sewer pump station
It’s always good to have an exciting project, but what’s happening in Staffordshire, England is probably a one-of-a-kind venture. In the town of Burton upon Trent, a rotating team of volunteers have spent more than 30 years restoring a Victorian pumping station. Although efforts to repair the Claymills Pumping Station began in 1993, the team recently created a YouTube channel to showcase their continued progress. The most recent video in their ‘Big Rebuild’ series focuses on the reassembly and firing of Boiler No. 1, a major part of the station’s massive 90-year-old Lancashire furnace system.
#3 The Great Reconstruction | Bringing a 90-year-old boiler back to life (part 3)
The last time Boiler No. 1 produced steam was in 1973, when it still relied on parts installed in the 1930s. Decades of exposure from a collapsed roof damaged the entire system. Not all of the original parts were salvageable, forcing the team to build precise replicas including a pair of heavy oven doors. Other recent hurdles include putting all the masonry surrounding Boiler No. 1 back in place after initially removing it to check the condition of the equipment. It is monotonous work, but necessary to construct a channel cradle to guide the hot gases through the boiler twice, extracting as much heat as possible.
When it was built in 1885, the massive and complex pumping station system was very advanced and required relatively few operators. Despite this, working at Claymills would have been exhausting. According to restaurateurs, a single attendant had to shovel coal into two separate boilers during his eight-hour shift. Additionally, rotating operating schedules meant that it was common for each boiler to be located at opposite ends of the facility.
Although there is still much to do, volunteers hope to light Boiler No. 1 for the first time in more than 50 years in just a few weeks. Other sections of the pumping station are already fully restored and regularly on display to visitors to the historic site.
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