Twyford Waterworks

The buildings on the site date back to various years between 1898 and 1935, and include the original steam powered pumping station and associated boiler house. These still contain a Hathorn Davey triple expansion steam pumping engine dating from 1914, and three Babcock & Wilcox boilers dating from 1906, 1903 and 1916 respectively. There are also three diesel engines, supplied by Ruston & Hornsby and dating from the 1930s when the plant was updated. The site also encompasses a water softening plant, fed by the pumping engine, and three lime kilns that were used to supply the water softening plant and that were in turn fed by on-site chalk pits. There is also a gauge industrial railway,…

The Steam Engine House – The Engine House contains the 1914 Hathorn Davey triple expansion steam engine which could pump up to 11 megalitres of water per day up to the service reservoir. The well is situated in the adjacent room behind the bricked-up archway. The pitman (which is preserved in the Boiler House) was connected to the crank at the end of the engine and protruded through the archway to operate the well pumps. The engine also drove pumps situated beneath it to pump the water up to the reservoir. The same well provides water today using submersible pumps driven by A.C. electric motors. The Boiler House – In the original part of the building are two Babcock & Wilcox boilers, one of…