Former Foreman's Lodge and Workshop at Clevedon Pumping Station, Clevedon, North Somerset

Summary

Former foreman’s lodge and workshop, dated 1901. Designed by architect Henry Dare Bryan in a Domestic Revival style for the Clevedon Waterworks Company.

Description

Former foreman’s lodge and workshop, dated 1901. Designed by architect Henry Dare Bryan in a Domestic Revival style for the Clevedon Waterworks Company.

MATERIALS: constructed of squared and coursed Pennant rubble stone to the ground floor with clay wall tiles to the attic storey. It has rubble stone chimney stacks with red brick chimney shafts, and a plain clay tile cross-gabled roof. There are double-chamfered, stone mullion casement windows to the ground floor and the timber mullion casement windows to the first floor, all with square leaded lights.

PLAN: roughly T-shaped plan.

EXTERIOR: a two-storey house. Its principal elevation (east) has an irregular façade, with an off-centre gable with overhanging eaves. To the ground floor is a four-light window and to the first floor is a six-light bay window. To the apex is a pendant with a heart-shaped motif which is repeated to each gable. To the left, set beneath a catslide roof with a flat-roofed dormer window, is a timber and glazed porch with decorative carving to the spandrels and an ashlar date stone with the inscription AD 1901. The inscription includes a heart motif. There is a projecting central gable to the north elevation with cusped timber panelling and above, to the ridge line, is a rubble stone axial stack with four brick shafts set on a diagonal. The projecting gable to the rear elevation (west) has a blocked doorway to the ground floor and to the right is an external stone chimney stack with two brick shafts set on a diagonal. The gable-ended south elevation has a ground-floor bay window with dentils beneath the moulded cornice, and a three-light window above.

INTERIOR: within the porch, is a plank entrance door with spear-headed iron hinges and brass doorbell, set within a moulded, basket arch-headed doorway with decorative carving to the spandrels. The timber staircase has a tapered newel post with moulded bowl-shaped capitals and stick balusters. On the pendant of the staircase is the heart motif. The principal reception room has a marble fire surround with decorative ball detailing and a cast-iron grate. To the window is a fitted timber pelmet. There is a fitted dresser in the dining room. Upstairs, the three bedrooms retain cast-iron fireplaces. Throughout the interior are three-panelled doors with brass door furniture, moulded architrave, cornices and decorative iron window latches.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: to the rear of the house is a single-storey, two-room workshop, with a gableted roof. It has two plank doors and a ten-light window which has been reduced in height.

History

Sir Arthur Hallam Elton (1818-83), 7th Baronet of Clevedon Court, was responsible for much of the civic work in Clevedon, and was a leading figure in the establishment of the Clevedon Waterworks Company in 1863. As a consequence, Clevedon’s first water and sewage works were completed in 1867 with a pumping station on Old Street and reservoirs to the north on Dial Hill. In the late C19, due to the growing popularity of Clevedon as both a resort and a place to live, the waterworks could no longer meet demand, and in 1901 a new pumping station was created on Tickenham Road, approximately 2km to the north-east. The old pumping station became the fire station.

The engineer, James Mansergh (1834-1905) was initially employed to design the pumping station, located approximately 500 metres to the east of Clevedon Court. Mansergh was a civil engineer who started his career in railway works but then designed a number of sewerage and fresh water schemes. However, Sir Edmund Elton, 8th Baronet of the neighbouring Clevedon Court was not happy with the proposals and the Bristol architect, Henry Dare Bryan (1868-1909) was brought in by the Clevedon Waterworks Company to enhance the design of the buildings which comprised the pumping station, coal shed and store, foreman’s lodge and associated boundary wall and gatepiers.

The Clevedon Waterworks Company was taken over by the Bristol Waterworks Company, now known as Bristol Water, in 1953. The site remains operational.

Reasons for Listing

The former foreman’s lodge and workshop at Clevedon pumping station, built in 1901 and designed by the architect Henry Dare Bryan, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural interest: designed by the distinguished Bristol architect, Henry Dare Bryan in the Arts and Crafts style, they are good compositions in a style that unifies them with the former coal shed;
* Intactness: the buildings survive largely unaltered, retaining many original fixtures and fittings;
* Group value: they form part of a complete ensemble of related buildings and structures at Clevedon pumping station which are all listed at Grade II.

External Links

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