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 (8th January 2018) there will be the January 2018 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:

Lichfield Waterworks Trust  Newsletter

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

Monday 8 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.

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

News and Events

May we take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy New year. 2017 has been a very eventful year for the Lichfield Waterworks Trust.

The trust was granted a licence to enter the building in February 2107 after four years of hard work. While initially we were quite dismayed at the state of the building and engine, the volunteers quickly rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in.

A lot of volunteer hours later, the transformation has been remarkable, with significant headway being made. There is still a lot to do, but we know that the task in hand is achievable. Thank you to everyone who has taken part.

Great News from the Architectural Heritage Fund

The campaign to save the Grade II* listed Victorian Waterworks at Sandfields Pumping Station, Lichfield takes another step forward with the award of a Project Viability Grant from the Architectural Heritage Fund.

The Lichfield Waterworks Trust was set up to save what is considered to be one of the Black Country’s hidden historic gems, and the regions least known about pieces of Industrial Heritage. The provision of clean water played a significant part in the growth of the Industrial Revolution, and added twenty years to the average life expectancy of everyday working people.

Trust Secretary Gill Bellenie said that the award of this grant is a significant achievement and places the trust in a position to really move forward with its quest to save this iconic building for the benefit of the community.

If you would like to be a part of this very exciting project, or would like further information, then please visit our website

www.lichfieldwaterworkstrust.com

Grants

We are also very pleased to announce that have been successful in a grant application to the Tesco Bags of Help programme. The grant amount is dependant on the number of votes cast by the customers of the local Tesco Stores. Voting for our project is due to start in Tesco store/s on the 2 January 2018. We will update you with further and better particulars in the new year. 

Work Teams

The pumping Station will be closed over the Christmas period and will reopen to the work parties on Friday 12 January 2108.

Finally

Why are we doing this?

Industrial heritage buildings sit there quietly in the landscape, often unloved, often long forgotten. Their familiarity in the landscape has eroded away the curiosity of the passer by. But given the opportunity, our industrial heritage can tell remarkable stories of the past, of everyday people, and help us define who we are.

The gothic revival style gave Brittan its industrial look and identity. It took the language from the past and built the way to the future. The water engineering achievements of the Victorian engineers gave something back to the community, removing deaths from cholera from Brittan, enabling a new improved quality of life for all.

But let us never forget that Cholera is still the seventh biggest killer in the modern world. With 1.3 million people still infected with this dreadful disease, and 130 thousand death each year, it still has a significant impact on the quality of lives of millions of people.

This is why is so important to preserve our industrial heritage, to allow it to tell its remarkable story’s, to give us voice, and bear witness to history, so that others may learn, so they may celebrate our triumphs and be warned of our failures.

We are all creatures of memory. We cannot have a future idea unless we access a memory of the past. This is why we should save this building.

Thank you all.

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.