Stretham Old Engine
alongside the River Great Ouse
Stretham Old Engine is a steam-powered engine just south of Stretham in Cambridgeshire, England, that was used to pump water from flood-affected areas of The Fens back into the River Great Ouse. It is one of only three surviving drainage engines in East Anglia, and is a Grade II* listed building.[1][2]
Jim Mason. The Black Fen=History==
During the seventeenth century a drainage scheme was executed by the Dutchman, Cornelius Vermuyden, which brought a large area of previously boggy East Anglian fenland into agricultural production. This drainage scheme relied on open drainage ditches as the topography was too level to allow piped drainage.
As the fenland peat dried, exposure to the air caused the organic soil to oxidise and it started to shrink. This process is still taking place today. With the shrinkage the levels of many of the man-made ditches fell below the levels of the rivers into which they drained. The river beds did not shrink as they contained a large proportion of mineral soil washed down from beyond the fen.
Initially the shrinkage was slight and wind powered water wheels, such as can be seen at Wicken Fen were installed to lift the water into the rivers. As the shrinkage of the peak continued a single wind powered water wheel was not able to raise the drainage water sufficiently high to empty into the rivers. Two or three waterwheels were then installed in succession to raise the water.
With the advent of steam power beam engines such as the Stretham Engine provided a better solution to raise the drainage water into the rivers. Steam gave way to diesel power and subsequently to automatically operated electric pumps.
Steam engine
The steam engine on the Old West River (Great Ouse) just south of Stretham was built by the Derbyshire firm, Butterleys, in 1831, costing £4950. It replaced four nearby windmills and its scoop wheel was used successfully for over a century to lift water from flood channels back into the river. Powered by coal that was brought by barge, it consumed a ton of fuel every four hours.
The rotative beam engine is of the double-acting type with a beam of 24 feet 8 inches (7.52 m) and a flywheel 24 feet (7.3 m) in diameter. The scoop wheel it drives has been successively enlarged as the level of the fens has shrunk: the first wheel was 29 feet (8.8 m), increased to 33 feet (10 m) in 1850 and to 37 feet 2 inches (11.33 m) in 1896 and lifted 120-150 tons of water per minute.
During use, the engine needed constant supervision, with the stoker and superintendent on 24-hour call. One superintendent even installed a telescope in his window so he could supervise the workmen without the need to get his feet wet. [citation needed]
Replacement
In 1924, the installation of a Mirrlees diesel engine saw the steam engine relegated to 'standby', and the last serious use was during the floods of 1939 and 1940. Prickwillow Museum contains a nearly identical Mirrlees Diesel engine that has been preserved and restored to working order. The pumping station was later replaced with 5 smaller, more efficient, electrical pumps that drain into the River Cam and are still in use.
Public opening
The engine is open to the public Sunday afternoons and Bank Holidays from the beginning of April to the end of October between 1.00pm and 5.00pm.
Picture gallery
-
Main cylinder head (foreground); valve cylinder (background); machine hall and flywheel -
The beam in the beam room. The beam room also acts as a museum. -
View of the engine -
1925 Mirrlees diesel -
Butterley Co. boilers
See also
References
- ^ Historic England. "Old Engine House (Grade II*) (1127031)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
- ^ Historic England. "Old engine house, Grade II* (1127031)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 June 2010.
- The Steam Pumping Station at Stretham, Cambridgeshire by EJA Kenny and R L Hills, Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 1963-4 Vol 236.
- Hills, R L (1965). Official Guide The Stretham Engine.
External links
