Sandfields Pumping Station – a great historic building with immense history and social significance – not just to Lichfield, but to the Black Country. Lichfield Discovered and local historian Dave Moore have saved this valuable asset for the community.

Sandfields Pumping Station champion and public historian extraordinaire Dave Moore has been in touch to let me know that this evening (Monday 9th January 2017) there will be a public progress meeting for the Lichfield Waterworks Trust charity, formerly the Friends of Sandfields Pumping Station group.

Its worth noting The Trust have announced that they had been successful in securing the building for the future as revealed here last year, and recently gained access to the interior of the pumping station for the first time.

Note the new venue – the meeting takes place at the The Bowling Green pub, Friary Road, Lichfield from 7:30-9pm.

Dave wrote:

Dear Brownhills Bob,

The next monthly open public progress meeting of the Lichfield Waterworks Trust will take place on:

Monday 9 January at 7.30pm, in the rear meeting room of the

The Bowling Green
Friary Road
Lichfield
Staffordshire
WS13 6QJ

Tel: 01543 257344

The Bowling Green serves some great food and real ales.

November Meeting notes can be downloaded here

2017 and we are ready on the starting blocks.

Persimmon have done a great job of tidying up the pumping station and have blocked of the open widows to prevent any further bird ingress. They have also done the asbestos survey and removed much of the bird mess. They have also installed a generator for our use and several safety barriers.

The place looks better shape than it has for years, however we are still waiting for new on the handover the keys for the licence. We felt that it was in our best interests not to chase for keys late in December, as the holiday would have been time that we could not fully utilise. We have this week written to Persimmon or an update.

Safety training is ready to start on Monday 23 January at Woodhouse Farm. Philip Mantom has done an amazing job of organising the training day for 16 people at a great venue. We will be serving a home grown and cooked lunch to the team from the kitchen garden at Woodhouse Farm.

Please note the new meeting venue for the January and of course Monday will be the new meeting day. Everyone is welcome to attend, so please come along and say hello.

2017 is going to see some significant changes at Sandfields Pumping Station. We now have a window of opportunity to save for future generations one of the area’s most significant pieces of industrial heritage, and make it accessible to all.

At the end of the licence period we must produce a viable and robust business plan that clearly outlines how we will deliver an ongoing programme of funding, maintenance and renovation of the site.

As a registered charity, we must show that we are capable of managing this site as an ongoing and viable entity that is both sustainable and accessible.

As a registered charity, we must show that we have the support of the members, other stakeholders and the community in general. It is therefore it is important that we have a robust membership as a record of your support.

So please, join us now by filling in Membership Application Form by going to our membership page here. It is free to join and be a part of this incredibly exciting project.

We have incurred some considerable expenditure covering legal costs, insurance and training. We will always invest in our people, and we are planning further training days soon too. All these costs soon mount up, so if you can donate, then please visit our donation page here, any amount is helpful and well appreciated.

You can also do a direct bank transfer:

Bank Details:

HSBC Bank
Account Name: Lichfield Waterworks Trust
Sort Code: 40-28-18
Account Number: 02050722

or

Please make cheques payable to; Lichfield Waterworks Trust, and send to our address:

22 Walsall Road
Lichfield
WS13 8AB

We do not share your data with anyone else, but we do like to have your details correct. If there are any errors or omissions, please let us know.

Our data protection policy is here.

Do pop over to Dave Moore’s blog and check out the history of Sandfields Pumping Station, an almost forgotten gem – the group also has a Facebook page.

Dave is, of course, one of the leading lights of Lichfield Discovered, along with Kate ‘Cardigan’ Gomez from Lichfield Lore.

It’s great to see people like Dave encourage a better attitude to our historic buildings, rather than that which we seem to have here in Walsall, where we regard heritage architecture as merely ‘fuel’.

Please do attend if you’re able, it’s sure to be enlightening and educational.