Sandfields Pumping Station champion and public historian extraordinaire Dave Moore has been in touch to let me know that this evening Monday 12th November 2018) there will be the monthly 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 November News Letter

The next public meeting of Lichfield Waterworks Trust will take place on:
Monday 12 November 2018 at 7.30pm, in the rear meeting room of:
 
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, everyone is welcome.
 
Meeting Notes

September meeting notes are available here

Tonights Talk
Friday 26 October 2018 was the 160th anniversary of the first water to be pumped from Sandfields Pumping Station. A truly remarkable achievement in Victorian water engineering that changed the course of the industrial revolution. The Victorians achieved many things that shaped the world we all live in today, but do we really understand Victorian culture?
 
It is said that the way a civilisation treats its dead it the key to understanding the culture, so how did the Victorians treat their dead?
 
Our very own David Moore, Charmin of Lichfield Waterworks Trust will be talking tonight about the symbolism found in Victorian Cemetery’s.
 
Symbols are a language that can help us understand our past. As the saying goes, “a picture paints a thousand words”: but which words? Understanding our past determines actively, our ability to understand the present. Tonight, we take a journey back in time to look at the symbolism found in Victorian cemetery’s and try to understand what messages the living left, to tell the story of their dead loved ones.As always, this talk will invite you to think about the past differently.

Health and Safety
We are really pleased to report that we have been working for another month where there have been no incidents relating to health and safety. A very big thank you again to everyone for working safely and looking after your fellow volunteers.
 
Donations
With over 2,500 volunteer working hours, (equates to more than two full time equivalents) and over £6,000 spent in cleaning equipment, materials and scaffold. This month has seen quite a drain on our bank balance with invoices for the viability study and scaffolding landing on the desk. Looking at the engine now, as opposed to how it looked in 2016, the volunteers have made some remarkable progress.

We will also always invest in our people and we are planning further training days soon. All these costs soon mount up, so if you can donate, then please visit our donation page here.
 
Any amount is helpful, is well appreciated and will be carefully spent preserving our industrial past for our future generations, developing skills for our people and making our community a better place
 
Please make cheques payable to; Lichfield Waterworks Trust, and send to our address:
 
22 Walsall Road
Lichfield
WS13 8AB
 
Membership

We would like this opportunity to welcome a few new members.
Thank you for joining the Lichfield Waterworks Trust. We hope you will enjoy your membership and become part of a very exciting heritage project that will benefit the people, the place and the community.
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.

Finally

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

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