Selly Oak Pumping Station
Encyclopedia
Selly Oak Pumping Station was a water pumping station
Pumping station
Pumping stations are facilities including pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastructure systems, such as the supply of water to canals, the drainage of low-lying land, and the removal of sewage to processing sites.A pumping station...

 operating in Selly Oak
Selly Oak
Selly Oak is a residential suburban district in south-west Birmingham, England. The suburb is bordered by Bournbrook and Selly Park to the north-east, Edgbaston and Harborne to the north, Weoley Castle and Weoley Hill to the west, and Bournville to the south...

, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, England from 1878 until the 1920s.

History

It was built by the Birmingham Corporation Waterworks department
Birmingham Corporation Water Department
The Birmingham Corporation Water Department was responsible for the supply of water to Birmingham from 1876 to 1974. It was also known as Birmingham Corporation Waterworks Department.-Early History 1808 - 1876:...

 in 1878 to house a Boulton and Watt
Boulton and Watt
The firm of Boulton & Watt was initially a partnership between Matthew Boulton and James Watt.-The engine partnership:The partnership was formed in 1775 to exploit Watt's patent for a steam engine with a separate condenser. This made much more efficient use of its fuel than the older Newcomen engine...

 steam engine pumping water for domestic use from a borehole
Water well
A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...

 underneath the building. The building is in the Gothic style and was designed by Martin & Chamberlain
Martin & Chamberlain
John Henry Chamberlain, William Martin, and Frederick Martin were architects in Victorian Birmingham, England. Their names are attributed singly or pairs to many red brick and terracotta buildings, particularly 41 of the forty-odd Birmingham board schools made necessary by the Elementary Education...

. It appears as a French Gothic Royal Chapel. The building became unnecessary with the opening of the Elan aqueduct
Elan aqueduct
The Elan aqueduct, crosses Wales and the Midlands of England, running eastwards from the Elan Valley Reservoirs in Powys to Birmingham's Frankley Reservoir, carrying drinking water for Birmingham....

, and it was converted into an electricity sub-station.

It is Grade II listed.
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