The Station as it looks now.
Lade bank pumping station is located on Hobhole drain, a few miles North East of Boston, Lincolnshire. The station has been operated by Witham Fourth District Internal Drainage Board since the board’s creation in 1935. The board has responsibility for operating and maintaining several pumping stations in the area, along with over 700km of watercourse. Lade Bank pumping station was originally opened in 1868 and featured steam engines to power the pumps. The pumps rotated a steady 36rpm and the engines were fired by 6 boilers, with all of the coal been delivered up the drain by barge. The steam engines were replaced and unfortunately scrapped in 1940 when a new Diesel house was built at the site. All though the steam engines were scrapped, fortunately the old steam house survives as does the original 90’ tall chimney which now forms a local landmark which due to the flatness of the fens can be seen for miles around. The old steam building is now a grade II listed building.
The new Diesel house when first built in 1940
The diesel house was built alongside the old steam house and is actually built directly over the drain. It features 3 Ruston 9XHRF (F denoting 4 cylinder) engines. Each of the engines weighs just shy of 17tonnes and are rated at 240hp! The flywheels are amongst biggest I can ever recall seeing on a horizontal engine, measuring an impressive 7’ 3” diameter and 16” wide! The pumps, driven directly from the Ruston’s were built by Gwynnes Pumps Ltd of Lincoln & London. The 3 pumps each feature 50” impellers and are capable of delivering 3.8 Cumecs each when working at full capacity. (Cumec = Cubic metres per second, with 1 cubic metre of water weighing approx. 1 tonne). We were fortunate enough to see one of the Ruston’s run up at the open day which was a sight to behold. Even when only working at partial capacity it was impressive to see how much water the pump was moving.
The three 9XHRF’s are not the only Ruston engines in the diesel house. As one can imagine these big engines require air starting. This is provided by a pair of Ruston 1VSO’s which drive a twin cylinder, air cooled Ruston BC compressor. As well as driving the compressor the 2 vertical Ruston’s also drive a twin cylinder vacuum pump, which is used for priming the big Gwynnes pumps, so that there is no air in the system when the Bigger Ruston’s fire up. All of the engines in the station are immaculately maintained and are ready for use as and when required.
The Ruston engines & Gwynnes pumps as they are now.
To assist the pumping capacity in the diesel house, a 105hp Allen Gwynne’s electric pump was commissioned in 1963. This somewhat smaller pump has a 36” diameter impellor and is capable of pumping 1.98 cumecs. 2 further Electric pumps were added to the station in 1990. These are Bedford axial flow pumps and can pump 1.9cumecs each. All 3 of the electric pumps and the diesel engine pumps are still in commission and are still used on a regular basis to help drain the surrounding land, giving a total pumping capacity at the station of approximately 17.18 cumecs, with a responsibility for draining 12782.6 Hectares of land. Some may ask why such a large pumping capacity is needed. Well the answer is that these pumps and those further down the drain still provide the main flood defence for the area, where due to peat shrinkage over the years, some of the land is up to 6m (20ft) below sea level at high tide. During periods of high water levels, like those experienced in the recent wet winters, all 6 pumps can be in use 24 hours a day, to stop the surrounding area flooding.
It is a testament to the quality of workmanship by Ruston’s & Gwynne’s’, and those at the drainage board that still maintain and operate them, that these engine and pumps have stood the test of time and are still doing the job for which they were intended when built over 80 years ago.
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