Home to a pair of Woolf compound beam pumping engines and also the British Engineerium.
The pumping station was built in 1866 in the Gothic style.
The Goldstone Pumping Station was part of a water supply system devised by Thomas Hawksley (1807-93). Hawksley campaigned for the provision of clean drinking water and in his career he completed over 150 water supply schemes, of which the Goldstone Pumping Station is a particularly fine example.
Its first engine was by Arthur Woolf – a compound – supplied by Easton & Amos of Southwark, London.
In 1872 the water company was purchased by Brighton Corporation who, 4 years later, expanded the pumping station by installing another Woolf beam engine but this time by Easton & Anderson.
The steam-powered engines worked until 1952, but were then replaced by electric pumps.
To this day the site Hawksley chose, above Hove Park, continues to provide vast amounts of water, drawn-up through the chalk tunnels and wells that he had excavated.
The boiler house and engine house of Goldstone Pumping station are grade II* listed.
Read the Historic England entry – HERE!
The boiler house originally contained 6 boilers, but in 1934 they were replaced by 4 Lancashire boilers by Yates & Thom of Blackburn.
Jonathan Minns (1938-2013) secured the listing of the building in 1971 and took lease of it in 1974. He acquired exhibits from elsewhere, including a turbine of the kind designed by Sir Charles Parsons (1854-1931) and the Corliss engine displayed at the Exposition Universale of 1889 in Paris. Minns opened the pumping station as the British Engineerium in 1976, and it came to take leading role in conservation education in Britain.
As well as the restored pumping station equipment, the complex has a wide range of exhibits: more than 1,500 were in place less than a year after it opened. These include a 19th-century horse-drawn fire engine, traction engines, veteran motorcycles, Victorian household equipment and old tools.
A French-built horizontal steam engine dating from 1859 is the principal exhibit. It’s an 1889 Corliss valve horizontal single-cylinder steam engine by Crepelle & Garand of Lille. It was a gold medal winner at the 1889 Paris Exhibition to boot!
With trouble brewing financially, Mike Holland, bought the building. Mike’s company, Threadneedle Entertainment, has renovated the buildings and proposes to re-open the pumping station as a substantial visitor attraction, probably in 2016.
According to ERIH, apart from the steam engines, themes will include:
The experience of flight, centred on Sir Thomas Sopwith (1888-1989),
The early 20th century cinema industry in Hove,
and electric power, centred on Magnus Volk (1851-1937) and the Volk Electric Railway.
To delve deeper, read a thorough entry about it on Wikipedia – HERE!
Their website can be accessed – HERE!
Home to a pair of Woolf compound beam pumping engines and also the British Engineerium.
The pumping station was built in 1866 in the Gothic style.
The Goldstone Pumping Station was part of a water supply system devised by Thomas Hawksley (1807-93). Hawksley campaigned for the provision of clean drinking water and in his career he completed over 150 water supply schemes, of which the Goldstone Pumping Station is a particularly fine example.
Its first engine was by Arthur Woolf – a compound – supplied by Easton & Amos of Southwark, London.
In 1872 the water company was purchased by Brighton Corporation who, 4 years later, expanded the pumping station by installing another Woolf beam engine but this time by Easton & Anderson.
The steam-powered engines worked until 1952, but were then replaced by electric pumps.
To this day the site Hawksley chose, above Hove Park, continues to provide vast amounts of water, drawn-up through the chalk tunnels and wells that he had excavated.
The boiler house and engine house of Goldstone Pumping station are grade II* listed.
Read the Historic England entry – HERE!
The boiler house originally contained 6 boilers, but in 1934 they were replaced by 4 Lancashire boilers by Yates & Thom of Blackburn.
Jonathan Minns (1938-2013) secured the listing of the building in 1971 and took lease of it in 1974. He acquired exhibits from elsewhere, including a turbine of the kind designed by Sir Charles Parsons (1854-1931) and the Corliss engine displayed at the Exposition Universale of 1889 in Paris. Minns opened the pumping station as the British Engineerium in 1976, and it came to take leading role in conservation education in Britain.
As well as the restored pumping station equipment, the complex has a wide range of exhibits: more than 1,500 were in place less than a year after it opened. These include a 19th-century horse-drawn fire engine, traction engines, veteran motorcycles, Victorian household equipment and old tools.
A French-built horizontal steam engine dating from 1859 is the principal exhibit. It’s an 1889 Corliss valve horizontal single-cylinder steam engine by Crepelle & Garand of Lille. It was a gold medal winner at the 1889 Paris Exhibition to boot!
With trouble brewing financially, Mike Holland, bought the building. Mike’s company, Threadneedle Entertainment, has renovated the buildings and proposes to re-open the pumping station as a substantial visitor attraction, probably in 2016.
According to ERIH, apart from the steam engines, themes will include:
The experience of flight, centred on Sir Thomas Sopwith (1888-1989),
The early 20th century cinema industry in Hove,
and electric power, centred on Magnus Volk (1851-1937) and the Volk Electric Railway.
To delve deeper, read a thorough entry about it on Wikipedia – HERE!
Their website can be accessed – HERE!
