- Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum
Infobox Historic building
caption=
name=Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum
location_town=Westonzoyland
location_country=England
architect=
client=
engineer=
construction_start_date=
completion_date=1861
date_demolished=
cost=
structural_system=
style=
map_type=Somerset
latitude= 51.090928
longitude= -2.944328The Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum is a smallIndustrial Heritage museum dedicated to steam powered machinery inWestonzoyland ,Somerset ,England .The museum is housed in the first of several similar pumping stations to be built on the
Somerset Levels . The main attraction is the 1861 steam engine and pump, the only one still in its original location and in working order. The museum also displays a number of other steam engines and pumps, and even has a short length ofnarrow gauge railway .History
The first mechanical pumping station on the
Somerset Levels in southwesternEngland was built in 1830 to drain the area aroundWestonzoyland , Middlezoy and Othery [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=15118#s22] . The success of thedrainage system led to the formation of other drainage boards and the construction of otherpumping station s.The pump at Westonzoyland originally comprised a
beam engine andscoop wheel (like a water wheel running backwards) but, after 25 years, there were problems pumping the water away as the land had dropped as it dried out. A better method was sought, and in 1861 the present pump was installed. The engine was built by Easton and Amos of London, to a design patented in 1858 by Charles Amos. It is a twin cylinder, vertical condensing engine, driving acentrifugal pump . A similar engine was on display at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and was shown to be able to lift 100 tons of water per minute, to a height of 6 feet. The Westonzoyland pump lifts water from therhyne (pronounced 'reen') into theRiver Parrett . The pump operated until 1951, by which time the local drainage system had been linked intoKing's Sedgemoor Drain , which discharged further down the River Parrett; the water levels dropped and the pump was unable to draw the water from the rhyne.During times of heavy rainfall, when additional pumping might be needed, the
Environment Agency maintained a diesel pumping station next door with a capacity of 50 tons per minute.Restoration
In 1976, members of the
Somerset Industrial Archaeology Society [http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/sias] began restoration of the site, which included digging out tons of mud which had buried the bottom of the pump.The Westonzoyland Engine Trust was formed and in 1990 bought the site from the owners,
Wessex Water . Acollection of steam and diesel engines with connections either to the area or to pumping have been assembled on site and regular steam days are held.The pump house has been Grade II* listed, and is on the
English Heritage Buildings at Risk Register .Steam is provided by an elderly Marshall portable boiler – essentially a
portable engine without the actual "engine".ee also
*
Association for Industrial Archaeology
*Industrial archaeology External links
* [http://www.wzlet.org Westonzoyland Engine Trust website]
* [http://www.industrial-archaeology.org.uk The Association for Industrial Archaeology (United Kingdom )]
* [http://www.sia-web.org/ Society for Industrial Archeology (United States )]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK9QbXW4WWg Part 1] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HgNR71tz84 Part 2] Videos of visits to museum
*EHbarName|Westonzoyland+Pumping+Station
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.