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Monday 10am - 4pm Thursday 10am - 4pm Saturday 10am - 4pm Sunday 10am - 4pm

The Claymills Victorian Pumping Station

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Burton upon Trent
The Claymills Victorian Pumping Station

Follow the progress of the various restorations and events at Britain's most complete pumping station

01/06/2026

Please note
The model railway and engineering event has been cancelled.
This is due to major engineering work on the railway.
Sorry if this causes any inconvenience.

27/05/2026

Please note.
The Pumping Station will be closed on Saturday the 30th May.
This is due to the access road being closed for a major upgrade to the railway crossing.
Sorry if this causes any inconvenience.

18/05/2026

We will be in steam again on the 24th & 25th of May !!
We will be running 3 Lancashire boilers together in steam for one final time.
The volunteers have been hard at work making up the last few parts for number 1 boiler bending up new copper pipes for the gauge glasses & insulating the top part of the boiler shell.
We hope as many of you as possible can join us for this historic event

10 am - 5 pm

Claymills pumping station
Meadow lane
Stretton
Burton on Trent
DE13 ODA

10/05/2026

Come join us today at the Stretton Food & Drink Fayre!

📍Starting at 12pm over on Jubilee Playing Fields off Hillfield Lane, Stretton, DE13 0BL. Just opposite Claymills!!

See you there!

29/04/2026

Some of you may already know but this Sunday & Monday we are running 3 Lancashire boilers at The Claymills Victorian Pumping Station. This marks the end of a 2.5 year project to return number 1 boiler to steam.
A little history for those who don’t know what I’m on about -

The main pumping plant at Claymills consists of four Woolf compound, rotative, beam pumping engines. These are arranged in mirror image pairs, in two separate engine houses, with a central boiler house and chimney. The engines were built in 1885 by Gimson and Company of Leicester.

The engines were normally run in pairs, never all together, although a third engine was occasionally employed during times of heavy load. These operated at about 10 rpm and two engines had a combined pumping rate of 5.5 million gallons per day. Each engine house contains a single cylinder horizontal air compressing engine, for charging the air vessels (anti surge vessels) on the pump discharge mains. At a later date, horizontal single cylinder barring engines were added (one for each pair of engines).

Steam was supplied at 80 psi, by a range of five Lancashire boilers. Two boilers were steamed with a third on hot standby & one undergoing maintenance with another cold but in operational condition. Alternated every 8 weeks. The originals were replaced in 1937 by the current five. These are fitted with Green's economisers and Meldrum's mechanical stokers. There is one horizontal single cylinder, rotative boiler feed pump by Buxton and Thornley of Burton upon Trent and a vertical by Halls. The boilers also supplied steam to over thirty auxiliary engines. Most of these survive on, and off, the site. Three of these are housed in a more modern block behind the engine house. The best are the pair in the dynamo house. These are a horizontal single cylinder engine, by Buxton and Thornley, dating from 1889, and an inverted vertical duplex engine, built at Claymills circa 1906.
We believe this will be a preservation first & will only be done for a short time while we have 3 boilers in ticket.

If you’d like to see 3 Lancashire boilers generating steam to run the entire site - around 35 working steam engines! We’d love to welcome you on the 3rd & 4th of May 2026 10am - 5pm
Claymills pumping station
Meadow lane
Stretton
Burton on Trent
Staffordshire
DE13 ODA
More details - https://www.claymills.org.uk/events.html

31/03/2026

We are in steam this Sunday & Monday ! 5th & 6th of April.
We will be putting on our annual Easter egg trail along with a visit from Professor Pumpernickel who will be performing 3 shows each day ! We hope you can join us. Kids go free & plenty of free car parking on site

We are open 10am - 5pm each day
Claymills pumping station
Meadow lane
Stretton
Burton on Trent
DE13 ODA

Aswel as getting ready for our Easter steaming event the volunteers have been busy on the restoration of number 1 boiler , the boiler was re lit for the first time since 1971 on the 23rd of March 2026. Arthur scattergood (one of the original station boiler men) was kind enough to light it for us.

03/03/2026

Our next steaming weekend is on the 5th & 6th of April. We will be joined by science entertainer Professor Pumpernickel !
We will also be doing our Easter egg trail along side our children’s ratty trail.
Kids go free to all our events in 2026.

The volunteers have been hard at work making up the new boiler stand pipe for number 1 boiler & digging for the services into our new visitors centre & cafe building.

08/02/2026

The volunteers have been hard at work getting both the new visitors centre finished & number 1 Lancashire boiler.
Why not call in at our next steaming - 14th & 15th of February to see how we are getting on.

The volunteers have been busy installing the services into the new building & installing the interior walls.
The restoration of the Meldrum & Clayton sprinkles stokers is progressing well & the re instillation of the York stone ontop of the boilers flues is also progressing. A new seat has also been manufactured for the Hopkinson combination safety valve at the back of the boiler.

We have also started something new, we have just launched our YouTube channel & we’d love if you could take a look ! -

https://youtu.be/tYvqV27G4c8

26/01/2026

Thanks to everyone who came along to our January steaming !! We are steaming again on the 14th & 15th of February! We are open 10am - 5pm
The volunteers have also been busy putting all the surrounding masonry back around number 1 boiler. Work also continues on our new cafe & visitors centre building.
We look forward to seeing you all in February!!

09/01/2026

The volunteers have been busy getting ready for our January steaming , 17th & 18th of January !
We will be running Britain’s oldest working electrical generator & lighting up the yard for this event. We are open 12-8pm
See you all there !!
Claymills pumping station
Meadow lane
Stretton
Burton on Trent
DE13 ODA
Kids go free
Free car parking

Address

Meadow Lane
Burton Upon Trent
DE130DA

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 4pm
Thursday	10am - 4pm
Saturday	10am - 4pm
Sunday	10am - 4pm

Telephone

01283509929

Website

http://claymills.org.uk/, https://m.youtube.com/@ClaymillsPumpingStation

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