Claverton Pump
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2008-10-06 07:24:36 - Graham Ellis
What's inside this little building that sits over a back water of the River Avon just a few miles up river from Bath?
A 25 foot wide water wheel, with each scoop on the wheel taking no less than half a ton of water [background], and a set of full functioning gears and flywheel - the whole being fully operational!
The fly wheel drives two huge beams, which in turn operate pumps that use to raise water up to the Kennet and Avon Canal that runs along the hillside above. Read more about it at the official site here.
The River Avon rises and falls quite dramatically at times of heavy rain, and indeed it was rising late yesterday when we dropped in by chance at the pumps.Although shut(ting) down for the day, one of the team of volunteers briefly showed us around and I was able to take these pictures, including this one where he indicated where the two floods that have already had this summer rose to. Astonishingly, apart from moving some of the more delicate exhibits up above the water level, they can just let it flood - the engineering is so robust that it's not a major concern or panic - indeed, he also showed us the mud lines on the gears and flywheel which clearly indicated the angle they happened to have stopped at before the floods.
And a big THANK you to the gent - who's name I don't know - for letting us have that brief look around; it's little gestures like this, at the end of his day, which really "made" it for us.