Crofton Beam Engines - Steaming Weekend September 2025

Today, there are two steam pumping engines at Crofton. Here we explain how these were restored in the early days of preservation and about the various modifications that have taken place over the 200 years and more since the pumping station was built.

The first engine installed in the Engine House at Crofton was a second hand Boulton and Watt, purchased in 1802 from the West India Dock Company. This engine had a 90 cm (36 inch) diameter steam piston and a 2.5 m (8 foot) stroke. It had a wooden beam and worked a 66 cm (26 inch) diameter lift pump. It arrived at Crofton in 1807, and was at work by 1809.

James Watt
The Engine House was designed to accommodate two engines and a second Boulton and Watt was ordered in 1810 and was installed and working by 1812. This one had a 107 cm (42 inch) diameter steam piston, and a 2.5 m (8 ft) stroke. It had a cast iron beam 8 m (26 feet) long weighing some 6 tonnes and worked a 76 cm (30 inch) diameter lift pump. Both engines were of typical Boulton and Watt design with parallel motion linkages and separate condensers installed below the valve gear on the steam cylinder side (‘in-house’ side) of the beam wall. Steam was supplied by three ‘Waggon’ boilers at a pressure of 0.34 bar (5 psi).

Water from the Wilton natural springs fed the engine pound of the canal and the well in the station. There was a culvert from the engine pound to the well which maintained the supply of water for the pumps. The pumps raised this water 12 m (40 feet) and discharged it into the feeder channel.

As traffic on the canal increased, it was found that this water supply could not meet the demand. So, in 1836, Wilton Water, a 3 hectare (8 acre) lake, was formed on land belonging to the Marquis of Ailesbury, by damming the valley opposite the Pumping Station. The water then ran over a weir into the engine pound of the canal and then through a culvert to the well beneath the pump house.

This short film was made on the 27th September 2025 during one of the steaming weekends.

For more information - https://www.croftonbeamengines.org/ab...

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