Little Hay Pumping Station
of Little Hay Lane, Shenstone, Lichfield, Staffordshire
1933 'Perhaps the best example of co-ordinated water supply from artesian wells to be found in this country occurs in the important undertaking known as the South Staffordshire Waterworks Company, some thirty pumping stations serving the mains of its area, which approaches close to Derby and Stafford on the north and includes a crowded industrial district in the south, where it lies between Birmingham and Wolverhampton. Three of these stations, representative of different methods of operating deep-well pumps, have been, within the past few years, dealt with in these columns, viz., the Slade Heath station at the west boundary, employing vertical triple-expansion steam engines, in Engineering, vol. exxi, page 426 (1926); the Sandfields station, in the centre at Lichfield, with horizontal uniflow steam engines and electric motors, in vol. cxxiii, page 473 (1927) ; and the Little Hay station, near the eastern boundary, with heavy-oil engines and gearing, in vol. cxxxiv, page 613 (1932). The The Slitting Mill pumping station now to be described is situated in the north-western part of the area, near the town of Rugeley, and is a wholly electrically-operated station, thus presenting an interesting comparison with the other three. ....'[1]
Little Hay Pumping Station was built as one of a number of new water works built by the South Staffordshire Water Company following the South Staffordshire Waterworks Act of 1922. This act empowered the company to proceed with building works at Slitting Mill, Sandhills, Little Hay and Prestwood. Powers were also granted for constructing reservoirs at Shavers End, Coseley and Cawney Hill. Little Hay was brought into operation by 1930.
The pumping station was required to adhere to new measures brought in to protect wells and other water sources in the vicinity of the station. The boreholes needed to be lined to a depth of fifty feet from the surface to keep out all surface waters.
The above information is condensed from the Historic England entry.
See also Engineering 1932/11/25 and Engineering 1932/12/16. Two six-cylinder 338 HP 300 rpm diesel Engines were supplied by W. H. Allen, Sons and Co. Each engine drove, through a double-helical speed-increasing gear, a vertical spindle-turbine type borehole pump and a vertical spindle-turbine type booster pump, both mounted on the same vertical shaft. The bore hole pumps were designed to lift from a depth of 150 ft below basement level. 'The bore-hole pump delivery is taken to the water cooler in the settling tank, where it passes round the outside of the cooling tubes and out through a bell-mouth pipe. The water traverses the full length of the settling tank to allow any sand in suspension to settle and then flows over a weir into a suction chamber from which the force pump takes its suction. Attached to the settling tank is a water-level indicator with an alarm bell, which rings if the water falls to weir level or rises to overflow level. ..... the engine is capable of driving the bore-hole pump, force pump and generator, when the bore-hole pump is lowered to a depth of 200 ft. below basement level. Should this be necessary, other stages will be added to the an bore-hole pump. The force pump is of the vertical-spindle, multistage, centrifugal type, placed directly on a stool carried on the bore-hole pump head-box and driven by the vertical shaft, which also drives the borehole pump. ..... the pump has five single-inlet impellers working in series.'