Sandfields Pumping Station champion and public historian extraordinaire Dave Moore has been in touch to let me know that next Monday evening, 14th January 2019 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:

The next public meeting of Lichfield Waterworks Trust will take place on:
Monday 14 January 2019 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, everyone is welcome.
 
November Meeting Notes

Tonights Talk:

The Lichfield Maltings
 
This months talk is by our very own Colin Walton who is going to talk about the Lichfield Maltings

Lichfield Maltings was originally built in 1890 for Lichfield Brewery and became part of Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries after the fire at the brewery and friendly take over the next morning in 1924, leading to the numerous local Banks’s pubs.  The maltings ran until 2005 as one of the last traditional floor maltings, with the addition of refrigeration in the Summer months, allowing malting throughout the year. Malting is a special art, with steeps to soak the barley, power shovels on the cold floors, anthracite burners to heat the kiln, all requiring a lot of the hardest manual labour, to make the finest malt.

The colour photograph shows the maltings in 1992 and the whole process will be explained to satisfy the most discerning beer drinkers.

Health and Safety

We are really pleased to report that December has 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.
 
Engineering Team Report

The Engineering Teams work is continuing at an astonishing rate, with he 1874 engine house now taking on a look of originality and careful conservation.
 
The Engineering Teams report can be downloaded here

Building Maintenance Team Report

The Building and Maintenance Team continue with their endeavours to clean and repair the building. Balustrades fitted recently have been painted in a colour that’s more sympathetic to the 1874 building.

The land around the Pumping Station is looking clean and tidy, with lawns mowed and litter removed.  

Archive and Document Preservation Team Report

Archive and Document Preservation Team continue with their cataloguing, sorting and filing.

The team recently obtained some new (used) shelving from Staffs County Council that was surplus to their requirements.

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.
 
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

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.