Claymills Pumping Station

Claymills Pumping Station is a restored Victorian sewage pumping station on the north side of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England DE13 0DA. It was designed by James Mansergh and used to pump sewage to the sewage farm at Egginton.

The main pumping plant consists of four Woolf compound rotative beam engines. These are arranged in mirror image pairs across two separate engine houses, with a central boiler house (containing five Lancashire boilers with economisers) and chimney. The engines were built in 1885 by Gimson and Company of Leicester. All the engines are similar, and the following description is limited to only one, but applicable to all.

The high-pressure cylinder is 24-inch bore by 6-foot stroke, and the low-pressure cylinder is 38-inch bore by 8-foot stroke. Steam is distributed by means of double beat 'Cornish' valves, mounted in upper and lower valve chests. The cylinders act on one end of the beam, via Watt's parallel motion. The beam itself is 26 feet 4 inches between end centres, 4 feet deep at the centre, weighs 13 tons and is carried on 12-inch-diameter (300 mm) bearings.

The four main pumping engines were all operational until 1969 when the A and B engines were halted, followed by the C and D engines two years later in 1971. The engines were gradually returned to operation three decades later, starting with D engine in 2001, C in 2002, B in 2017 and finally A in 2023. Since then, all four Woolf compound beam engines have been in steam for approximately 14 weekends per year.

The site boasts a total collection of 33 original running steam engines. The modern sewage works, run by Severn Trent Water, is situated alongside the pumping station.