Description

SUNDERLAND

NZ3855 SEAFORTH ROAD
920-1/15/201 (South West side)
10/11/78 Humbledon Pumping Station

GV II

Water pumping station. 1846 and later. By Thomas Hawksley;
from 1852 for the Sunderland and South Shields Water Company.
English garden wall bond brick (3 and one) with ashlar plinth,
quoins and dressings; Welsh slate roof.
2 high storeys, 2x1 windows to engine house; double range
boiler house one high storey, 3 windows. Italianate style. NE
elevation has engine house at right: ashlar-coped dwarf walls
flank steps up to boarded door and overlight in plain jambs
with triple-keyed plain stone surround to semicircular head on
impost blocks; wedge stone lintel and projecting stone sill to
blocked square window above. Boiler house on ground falling to
left has stone voussoirs and triple key to high arch at right,
next to engine house, and 3 blocked windows at high level with
wedge stone lintels and projecting stone sills. Right return
of engine house has 2 round-headed windows with surrounds
similar to that of door, and to square windows above similar
to those on NE; diagonal buttress between ground floor windows
is of large ashlar blocks. SW elevation a mirror image of NE
but with shorter steps, and with rectangular hole at top right
of engine house.
This was the first of a series of pumping stations designed by
Hawksley, and continued by his son, to pump water through the
magnesian limestone to provide the first good water supply for
Sunderland. All windows blocked, boiler house chimney removed
and pumping station out of use at time of survey.
(Milburn GE and Miller ST: Sunderland River, Town and People:
Sunderland: 1988-: 74; Corfe T: The Buildings of Sunderland
1814-1914: Newcastle: 1983-: 19).

Listing NGR: NZ3820955220

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26569060

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)