Description

TRING RURAL GRAND UNION CANAL -
SP 91 SW
WENDOVER ARM
(North side)
Little Tring
4/62
- Tringford Pumping
Station
GV
II

Water pumping station to fill Tring summit level of canal from
reservoirs. Erected 1816-17 at 'spot determined by Mr Telford', with
Boulton and Watt steam engine (date 1803 on C20 plaque incorrect) as
second pumping station on Wendover feeder arm. Extended 1836-8 when
station adapted as single centralised pumping station with 2nd steam
engine ('York' engine) added, removed 1913, boiler house on N side mid
C19, diesel engine house in NE angle dated '1911', beam engine removed
and engine house reduced in height 1927 (plaque over door '1803/1927').
Red brick original engine-and-pumphouse, brown brick extensions, uniform
sandstone dressings added to existing round headed windows, and slated
pitched roofs. A long narrow brick pumphouse parallel with the canal and
with outflow ponds between. 4 round-headed large windows with keystones
and impost blocks. Still in use with long headings from reservoirs
concentrating on 3 deep brick wells in the pumphouse. Water now pumped
by electric pumps up to level of canal arm which flows into the
Marsworth end of the summit level. Wider and lower Boiler House extends
along much of N side of pumphouse. Brown brick with blue brick offset to
plinth and segmental arches to openings. Widespan C19 king-post timber
trusses spanning from corbels on rear wall of pumphouse to piers in N
wall. Designed for 2 boilers. Underfloor air intakes from small round
headed external opening low down in middle of N wall there 22 1/2 inches
thick. 2 high double doors with 2 large windows with cast iron framed
small-pane frames in W gable end. Toothed brick band in corbelled verge.
5 bays panelled N side with 2 similar windows. Yellow brick diesel
engine house with red brick dressings and canted corner, in the NE angle
of the other buildings. 2 tall round headed windows and door. Small
panes and windows at ground level. Interior in glazed brick with dado
and raised platform formerly supporting 100hp and 50hp diesel engines.
Pumphouse entered by round headed double doorway in N side of part
projecting to W of boiler house. 27" thick side-walls and 5ft thick
crosswall built to support the 24ft long cast iron beam of the pumping
engine. Photographs and a plaque record this in use and during removal.
Erected 1817-8 it had a 49 1/2 inch diameter cylinder and a 8ft stroke. The
doorway is flanked by 2 tall Tuscan cast iron columns from the engine
frame topped by balls from the superstructure. An ornamental cast iron
trestle from the valve assembly is built into the apex of the W gable.
An earlier pumping station at Whitehouses (1802) pumped from Wilstone
No. 1 Reservoir but was superceded by Tringford pumping station and was
subsequently demolished. Wilstone Reservoir was heightened in 1811 and
1827 and extended in 1835 (No. 2) and 1839 (No. 3) by which time it had
been supplemented by Marsworth Reservoir (1806), Tringford Reservoir
(1814), and Startops End Reservoir (1815). They supply the summit level
of the canal main line, opened in 1799 as the Grand Junction Canal. The
Wendover Arm opened in the same year, was closed to commercial traffic
in 1896 and a long stretch beyond the pumping station has been filled
in. (D.G.McGavey Grand Union Canal: The History of Tringford Pumping
Station 1817-1945 1946, typed m.s.in Local History Library, County Hall,
Hertford: Branch Johnson(1970)118).

Listing NGR: SP9179712971

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26320551

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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