Gallery -
Swanbourne Pump House, Arundel
Drawings of Swanbourne Pump House
Swanbourne Lake Pump house (Arundel)
Tony Baxter
By the combined efforts of the Arundel Castle Estates and SIAS the 1846 pump
house has been restored The machinery - two sets of triple vertical force pumps
made by Stothert and Pitt of Bath driven by a turbine and installed in c.1900 -
has been cleaned. There is a viewing gallery with information boards.
The pump house is now open to the public. It is located within the compound
of the Swanbourne, Fishpond, which is a commercial venture allowing the public
to feed the young trout. This is not an ideal arrangement but is the price that
has to be paid for a degree of security and to allow the pump house to be
unmanned when open. The entrance to the Fishpond is immediately to the North of
the bridge at GR TQ 019077. The public are charged 40p to go in - which includes
a bag of fish food! - but members of SIAS can enter free on production of their
membership cards.
The opening days are somewhat erratic but are generally geared to school
holidays. The owners aim to open every weekend and bank holiday throughout the
year and every day during all school half-terms and holidays - though this
depends very much on the weather which therefore tends to restrict winter
openings. The opening times are from about 11am to about 6 pm. If the weather
seems doubtful it is best to telephone the owners beforehand - The Chalk Springs
Fishery, 01903 883742.
Special IA visits by small parties can be arranged by contacting either
Michael Palmer (01903 505626) or
Tony Baxter (01903 201002).
This article is from newsletter No. 111 July 2001
Swanborne Lake Pumphouse, Arundel - Official Opening, 21st June 2001
Tony Baxter
It may seem a bit cart-before-the-horse for this short account of the
official opening of the pump house to be published three months after the
announcement in the last Newsletter of its general opening to the public. The
short answer is that whilst the latter was certain the former was not! The need
for fine weather was of course a critical factor as was the presence of Lord
Arundel - fortunately both were available on the day. The SIAS was represented
by our President and Chairman together with the 'workers' - Alan Brown, Peter
Holtham, Ron Martin, Michael Palmer and myself. Local people connected with the
project also came to witness the great event. Shortly after midday, with our
glasses suitably charged, Sir Freddie Sowrey, our President, opened the
proceedings and then invited Lord Arundel to declare the pump house officially
open by the cutting of the tape with a pair of sharp scissors. This was achieved
with consummate skill and those present were then free tc inspect the premises
and machinery from the public viewing platform, aided by the information boards
which described both the history and technical operation. Prominently located
was the donations box which on examination after everyone had left was found to
contain one £2 coin - our thanks to the unknown donor for being the first to
help reduce the pump house's debt! So ended an historic day; and effectively a
very long gestation period which had begun in 1973 when John Haselfoot and
Michael Palmer had visited the site and had declared it capable of restoration -
some time after they did the same thing at the Coultershaw
Beam Pump which in the event beat Swanbourne to it by 21 years!
This article is from newsletter No. 112 October 2001
This article is from the archived Newsletter
No. 2 April 1974 :-
OLD WATER PUMPING STATION AT ARUNDEL
A.J. Haselfoot.
There is an interesting old water pumping station near Swanbourne Lake on
the Duke of Norfolk's Estate at Arundel, at TQ01810774. This comprises a
vertical-shaft, reaction type water turbine driving, through double-reduction
gears, two three-throw force pumps which originally pumped water up to a
reservoir about 200 yards away on the adjacent hill to supply the town of
Arundel. The date, 1844, was carved on a part of the reservoir wall, which makes
the installation a comparatively early one for a water turbine drive.
The building housing the turbine and pumps, which has been roofless for some 10
years, has a distinctly ecclesiastical appearance. Fig. I shows the upstream
side and part of the head-pond fed from Swanbourne Lake; the bypass sluice and
the trash-rack in front of the turbine inlet sluice can also be seen. Fig.2
shows the downstream side, the tail-pond (tidal and nearly dry in the
photograph) and the discharge openings of the bypass and turbine outlet sluices.
The head of water is about 10' at low tide.
Fig. 3 shows the bevel drive from the turbine, and the two lay-shafts; while
Fig. 4 shows one of the pumps and the wooden-toothed final spur-wheel of the
double reduction gearing. As the machinery is nearly all of cast iron with
bronze bushes it is in remarkably good condition after 10 years exposure to the
weather. The turbine ,'being completely drowned in the tail-race, is probably
still in excellent condition. I understand that the pumps have been turned over
by hand within the last two years. There is no maker's name on the machinery and
unfortunately all records and drawings of the equipment appear to have been lost
or destroyed.
The water supply arrangements, as shown on a drawing of 1895, are of particular
interest. One of the pumps is supplied by a suction pipe from the head-pond but
the other is fed by a suction pipe from an old well (now disused), which is laid
in a spacious culvert for about 40 yards. This has a plentiful supply of water
running down it which enters the culvert from some unknown source and, running
through the basement of the pump-house, discharges into the tail-pond. The
future of the installation is uncertain at present but it does not seem to be
deteriorating seriously
.
Figs 1 to 4 - Swanbourne Pump House
