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 Monday evening (1oth July 2017) there will be the July 2017 Public Meeting of the Lichfield Waterworks Trust charity, formerly the Friends of Sandfields Pumping Station group.

The meeting is at the Bowling Green pub, Lichfield from 7:30pm and is of course open to anyone interested.

Dave wrote:

The next public meeting of Lichfield Waterworks Trust will take place on:

Monday 10 July 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.

This is an incredibly exciting heritage project, so do come along and become involved, we make everyone welcome.

Agenda

Notes of the respective reports and meeting notes are in the link below

• Apologies.
• Notes of the May 2016 Meeting are here
• Matters Arising.

News

The work groups are continuing with their sterling work on the building and the engine.

A database of photos and objects is coming together quite nicely now.  The team carefully removing objects found in cupboard and store rooms and carefully cleaning them in preparation for photographing recording and cataloguing.

Work cleaning the engine is showing some remarkable progress as a reward for a lot of hard and dirty work. We are always looking for more volunteers to help with this work. Onsite training and safety induction will be provided.

The grounds of the pumping station are looking better than ever. The grass is cut and the surrounding paving’s are clean and tidy. Many thanks to the kind efforts of the working parties.

The bid team are working hard to put together a grant application for a feasibility study and have now submitted a first draft. Real progress is now being made.

The aim and objective of this study is to develop and produce a sustainable business plan to demonstrate that as a trust we are capable of managing this site in a business-like manner that clearly outlines how we will deliver an ongoing programme of funding, maintenance and renovation of the site. We will also outline how we will make it accessible, preserve the heritage and give benefit to the community in perpetuity.

We have just commenced a Heritage Lottery Fund Resilient Heritage Grant application. Resilient Heritage is a grant that will help and support the trust in becoming more sustainable organisation, help us improve our skills in maintaining the heritage and support us with our community engagement.

Forthcoming Events

We at the Lichfield Waterworks Trust just love getting out into the community and doing events that share our story. As always, we need help to organise and run these events, so if you can help on any of the following events, please let us know.

Huddlesford Gathering

Huddlesford Gathering is on the weekend of 23/24 September, we have kindly been invited to have a stand and are therefore looking for volunteers to meet and greet visitors.

Can you help?

If you enjoy meeting people and can spare a couple of houses on either of these days, please get in touch.

Health and Safety

We know people have mixed views about Health and Safety, however we have a very clear view about our members. We think you are incredible and value the work you do; therefore, we want to keep you safe.

We have an amazing health and safety manager, Phil Bowers, who has a very practical no nonsense hands on approach to health and safety.

We like to keep things simple and want our members not to feel daunted by health and safety regulations. We will walk you though the process and give you practical hands on training at a pace set by you.

To date 20 people have received site induction. Those who wish to volunteer on site please let Phil know.

Membership

It would really help us if we develop and grow our membership. If you are not already a member and would you like to be a part of one of the region’s most exciting heritage projects then 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.

Donations 

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

Finally

Thank you everyone for your continued support and helping to make a difference in your community.

We never 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.