Pump House, reservoir and boundary wall

Cadw's description

Location

Adjacent to the public toilets at St Brides Haven, near to the entrance drive to Cranford.

History

Constructed c.1905 to provide water for St Brides Castle and first shown on the 2nd edition Ordnance Survey map of 1908. St Brides Castle was enlarged 1905-6 for the 6th Baron Kensington by J Barbour & Bowie of Dumfries in a free Tudor style influenced by the Scottish Arts & Crafts movement. Building News reported in 1913 that ‘a new water supply, drainage and electric light’ had been installed as part of the recently completed works at the Castle with the Pump House an integral component of providing the refurbished and enlarged castle with the modern convenience of pumped fresh water.

Fitted with a Tangye engine and pump in the 1920s, presumably replacing an original pump, with a feed pipe bringing water from a spring to the east to an underground reservoir attached to the north side of the Pump House with a capacity of c16,000 gallons of water. The Pump House then pumped this water through a further pipeline to the Castle and to a second reservoir on the high ground to the SW of the Castle at a height of 57m (also on the 2nd ed. map marked as ‘Storage Tank’, at grid ref 179360 210340). The water was then gravity fed to a tank on the roof of the Castle where a filter house then processed the water for use in the house, laundry, and stables.

The Pump House fell out of use during the second half of the C20 but was restored 2000-1 by the charity the Friends of Pembrokeshire Coast National Park with the engine and pump brought back into working order. At the time of inspection it was kept open as an information and interpretation centre.

Exterior

Small square building in an Arts & Crafts style, single storey with pyramidal roof and two double boarded entrance doors undercut within the SW corner. Roughcast walls, slate roof with exposed rafter ends, cast iron rainwater goods, plain ridge tiles and vent to the apex. Each roof slope with flat headed 6-light dormer and triangular ventilator above.

Enclosed by a rubble stone wall to the lane to Cranford and with partly sub-terranean reservoir attached to the north.

Interior

Now divided but originally a single space. Tangye Type ‘V’ vertical engine in-situ but behind a display window, pipework and low level door to reservoir in the accessible part. Plain boarded underside to roof, the central boss of which has been decorated with the emblem of the Friends of Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.

Reason for designation

Included for its special architectural interest as a remarkably well preserved and rare example of a country house pump house. It is a well designed purpose built structure, modest in scale but exhibiting Arts & Crafts influences in the choice of design and decoration. It is also significant historically for its key role in providing a piped supply of water to St Brides Castle, constructed at a time when technological developments were being adopted to provide improved provision of services to country houses. Group value with St Brides Castle.