Dock Road Edwardian Pumping Station

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The interior of the Dock Road station, showing one of the two Crossley ‘N’ Type gas engines and Hayward Tyler pumps.

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The Cheshire town of Northwich, in the north west of England, is a market town with a long history of salt production.  Built at the junction of the rivers Weaver and Dane, the town had exported salt mainly by water down the Weaver navigation to the Mersey.  The opening of the nearby Trent and Mersey canal, to carry raw materials, fuel and finished products to and from the Potteries added to the prosperity of the town and the population grew with the salt trade and the general development of the two navigation systems.

 

By the end of the 19^th century, the Brunner and Mond companies had provided new housing for their employees and the town’s sewage facilities were no longer coping.  The first sewers were laid in the town but these merely discharged into the river and the system was no real defence against disease.  The Wallerscote Sewage Works was opened in 1902 and pioneered the micro-organism system of sewage treatment.  However, although Wallerscote was successful in improving conditions with the area that it served, there remained a significant part of the town along the riverbanks which was too low-lying for sewage to be able to flow by gravity to Wallerscote.

 

The solution to this problem was to build a pumping station next to the Weaver at Dock Road, which would intercept sewage before it went into the river and pumping it via a new 12” diameter main which discharged into the existing system at the top of Castle Hill, on the other side of the river.  From there, it flowed by gravity to an enlarged Wallerscote works.  A late addition to the scheme was an auxiliary pumping station on the low ground on the other side of the Dane, which transfer sewage from there to Dock Road, but no trace of that station remains.

 

… to be developed … (gvm Feb 08)

email:    info @ dockroad.org

 

call:       Gerry (warden) on 07970 207 941

To contact us:

Fax: 0870 136 2706