The Ouse Washes Website
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Disused oil-engine pump house
This brick building with slate-tiled roof hasn't operated as a pump house for many years. It is built on the side of the bank and appears to be set on a concrete slab with the front level with bank top. All windows are bricked-up or boarded over, and it has a single door on south side.The rear inlet is disconnected from the field drains; the outlet into the river is blocked off; the pump was in very poor condition and engine obviously totally inoperative when seen in 2013.
The building's only function now seems to be to receive electricity from the grid and distribute it around the site.
In 1996 an official drawing of all PSs discharging into OBR showed the output here to be 0.3 m3/sec (cumecs) not much less than Upwell Fen PS. I dont know which type of plant was operational then.
photos: Peter Cox; Jan 2026 Olympus E-PL7Left: south side with door. Note brickwork under right end of slab.
Right: front-side, electricity supply and cable to control box inside.
The concrete below bricks is not a complete slab. Inside, there is a sump at the rear, the south-east end (left end on photo).
photos: Peter Cox; left, Dec 2013, Olympus E-620; Right: Jan 2026, Olympus E-PL7Left: rear with intake pipe. Unidentified brickwork bottom left and right, maybe from earlier building (windmill ?)
Right: close-up of brickwork. Looks low enough to be a bricked-up trough for windpump scoopwheel. Note wall tie.
Engine
I've visited many dozens of pumping stations in the Fens and this is the the only one I've seen of its kind, and the oldest non-steam engine I've see in situ. It was probably made in the period 1910-1920.Its a low-speed, horizontal oil engine which looks like it had a fuel-injection pump leading to a couple of injectors so its a high compression diesel rather than the similar looking older low-compression ones. It drives an external crankshaft which turns large flat-topped wheels used to power equipment by belt.
There were numerous makers of this style of engine, several in surounding counties. They nearly all had their name embossed on the sides of the heavy base, but I've found none on this one.
all interior photos: anon, 2013, digital slr with flashLeft: much of the engine hidden by red girder. Note removed windows against wall. Right: close up of mechanisms.
The motor is behind an array of wheels and central crankshaft under the wide cover. Far right wheel driving belt to pump, left one maybe to a ???
on left, electricity supply to relatively modern (1960s?) wall mounted metal control box. Key switch on/off, start, stop, heater, meter reading from zero to 60 A. (amps?) and a Venner digital hours-run recorder which must be pre-1970 as company acquired then by AMF and products marked as AMF Venner.I wonder whether this box controled another motor?
On right, a pair of antique-looking Arkon wooden-faced meters, recording metres from zero to 3.0m. 'Metres' suggests continental manufacture. My guess is that they recorded heights or depths of water in the field drain and river. However, there appears to be copper pipes to/from the pump. The current Arkon company is only 20 years old, based in Checkosloakia, specialising in flow meters.
Electricity supply to site
map: UK Power Newtworks; photo: Peter Cox, Feb 2013, E-620Like the engine, this is a bit odd. Red HV cable pops out of the ground in the field the other side of the river, climbs up a pole and down again to a transformer from which LV cables go to a pole by the river bank, across the river to a pole beside the disused pump house, then to the rear (outlet) end of the building and into the control box as photo above.
Its a mystery to me where the HV cable comes from, why it was underground and why was HV laid on when only LV was or is needed?
pump
photos: anon, 2013, digital slr with flashLeft, belt from motor driving pump; inlet pipe through wall; valve.
Right: drive wheel; inlet pipe; valve; pump; outlet through floor
I think the valve controls the outlet.
outfall sluice
photos: Peter Cox, Jan 2026, Olympus E-PL7Left: front of blocked up outlet sluice. Right top seen from above
Demolished steam powered plant
This is a crop of the map shown earlier. Grey building shown on 1890s OS map, would have been demolished after installation of the oil powered house in the 1910-20 period.
Inlet to steam plant
Outfall sluices
photos: Peter Cox, Jan 2026, Olympus E-PL7above left, 24" pipe with syphon valve, probably from a steam pump; disconected 6" pipe and replacement section installed below, probably irrigation inlet controlled from electric switch on post.
photos: Peter Cox, Apr 2017 on-board NB Olive Emily, Olympus E-PL1, .Outlet is via an iron flap-gate, hinged at top, automatically opened by force of pumped water.
hidden possible outlet
Acknowledgements
Text and photos except where noted © Peter Cox, 2010-26If you think there are any errors or ommissions on this page or would like to comment, please e-mail me and your response will be added.
Lake Farm Pumping Station
Old Bedford River
Created Sep 2025, last edited: 31/03/26, 10:03
Introduction
Long views from road to Welmore Lake. L: 2011; R: 2013 with green "box"
This small pumping station is on the eastern bank of the CD/OBR, 1¼ miles south-west of Salters Lode. It drains and irrigates Lake Farm, an arable area of about 300 acres that was part of the Hundred Foot Washes floodwater reservoir from its formation in the 1650s to 1750-ish when it became separated by the Delph River and its high bank being cut diagonally across the washes to Welmore Lake Sluice.
Management
The station and land around is privately owned but I've not established by whom.History
I've found nothing of this station's history in the encyclopediac Fenland Pumping Engines by KSG Hinde, or online except for maps and satellite views. Those show that drainage here followed the pattern common throughout the Cambridgeshire fens, starting with wind, followed in succession by steam, oil and electric powered pumps.From the 1828 Wells map we know there was once a windpump here, and an OS 1890s 25-inch map shows that had been replaced by two buildings, since dismantled, which I assume was a steam engine. Satellite views in 2025 show two buildings, the current brick building, which from personal inspection in 2013 I know was an oil powered plant, and a small metal container-style cabin which is electrically powered.
I first saw the oil-engine house from a distance in 2011 and explored the site fully in 2013, by when the green cabin was in situ, and again in 2026 taking many photos both occasions and finding structures not shown on maps or satellites. I also took photos from a boat on the Old Bedford River in 2017 and 2018. A very small selection of those photos are on this page.
I have used all the above, and a few assumptions, to produce this map and the descriptions that follow.
The base of this map is a modern large-scale OS one used by local authority planning depts which shows the sandy coloured building, the disused oil plant. I've added the white items which are structures I found and the grey buildings represent those demolished, in approx locations shown on the 1890s map.The green square is the electric powered cabin.
The black double-lines are 24 inch diameter iron water pipes. The grey ones are 4-6 inch plastic or metal, dashed one underground.
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