Leawood Pumphouse

The architect of this fine engine house is long forgotten, like so many others, but many people comment on its design, often remarking that it looks like a town hall.

Finding this place was a very pleasant surprise. Not being in a Hillman Imp for the National Rally this year, I couldn't really join in the trip into the Crich Tramway Museum so poked around Matlock Bath in my own so I toured around for a bit and noticed a sign for High Peak Junction, which I already knew was where the Cromford & High Peak Railway met the Cromford Canal.

There's a small museum and a very interesting shop at High Peak Junction

The sewage works nearby niffed a bit but the footpath was well signposted and led me to the canal and the foot of the quaintly named Sheep Pasture railway incline.

However, there was a vaguely smokey quality to the air and, picking up an air scent, I ran along the towpath, passed the trans-shipment shed and saw a chimney through the trees on the opposite bank. And at the foot of the chimney was a splendid engine house complete with an engine IN STEAM.

The strange profile of the chimney is thought to aid smoke cleara nce in the steeply wooded valley. In the foreground by the railing you can just make out the welling up of pumped water

This was the Leawood Pumphouse, built in 1849 to pump water from the River Derwent up into the canal. It still does this to this day and you can see the water welling up around the canal side as the pump forces water through its pipes.

The locomotive type boilers have been identified from almost negligible stampings inside as being built by the Midland Railway

Graham and Company at the Milton Iron Works, Elsecar, built the 50" engine, which has a nine foot stroke and the pump itself, which is buried underground on a Cornish mine, is housed in a magnificent room all its own on the other side of the bob wall.

The beam features wing pieces at either end which support the engine when it's stopped

Consequently, the beam is totally enclosed within the engine house.

This is the cylinder cover for the 50 inch engine

Admission is free but I gave some folding stuff as a donation for keeping the place going. It was the smell as much as anything. The preserved engine in Cornwall are worked by compressed air, when the work at all, so seeing this engine still operating and still coal fired was very much the real deal. The smells, sights and sounds were as authentic as possible, although I understand the engine now operates at about half its normal working speed.

Curved cams on the rising beam move the graceful levers to control the valves

It appears to work automatically. All it needs is steam. Some earlier engines needed a driver to open and close the valves but here the lifting of the beam pushes beautifully made levers. All you need do is watch and marvel.

The hole in the top allows access to a pile of scrap iron which can be added or removed to tune the characteristics of the pump

The pump plunger itself weighs 15 tons and pumps 4 tons of water, equivalent to 800 gallons. The seal around the plunger is made of tallow and rope and has a small running water feed around its top surface to make a better seal.

The plunger goes down, way down

The engine worked until 1944 and escaped the attentions of the scrapmen due to its secluded location. It was restored in 1979 ans till works periodically.

Breakdowns? They use these swan-necked spanners to prevent them not repair. This tool board is in the arch of the bob wall and is for periodic preventative maintenance.

I was just lucky to find it working on one of those special days.

The fittings and fittings in these places provide such a wonderful atmosphere