Industrial History Online

Industrial History Online

Acomb Landing Waterworks

Description and History of Site:-
Pump room with small, squat, square chimney with battlements and a range of single storey single gabled buildings attached. Castle keep building in brown brick, 3 storeys, 4 bays and central door. Stone plinth, stone window reveals, square headed with hood moulds. Stone string course between 2nd and 3rd floors. Stone string course above and below plain blinding cornice. (Hatcher 1973). Considerably redeveloped since.
The York New Waterworks Company was formed in 1846 for 'better supplying with water the city and neighbourhood of York' and new works were established at Acomb Landing replacing the older and rather primitive, facilities at Lendal Tower (NYK00771). Initially the works included steam powered pumping engines, filter beds and reservoirs. The facilities were expanded and improved in 1868 and 1875. Additional plant was also added in 1886 and in 1895 and in 1905 the pumping capacity was also increased. The waterworks could now pump 13,000,000 gallons of water in twenty-four hours. In 1930, electrically powered pumps were installed to replace the steam plant which was last used in 1931. At the same time, chemical treatment of the water commenced. Up to this time the process relied on simple filtration of the river water. In the 1950s new mains were laid out and a new water tower was built at Siward's Howe (NYK01693), used from 1956. During the 1970s and 1980s the treatment plants were extensively modernised. York Waterworks continued to serve the City as an independent company until 1999, when it became part of Yorkshire Water.

More recently (2011), the water treatment works have been completely rebuilt to supply York with a capacity of up to 35 million litres per day


Further Reading and References:-
YAHS - Hatcher Card Index. Research funded by the Yorkshire Arts Association 1972.
Hatcher, J. The industrial architecture of Yorkshire. Phillimore, 1985.
https://borthcat.york.ac.uk/index.php/york-waterworks-company
https://waterprojectsonline.com/wp-content/uploads/case_studies/2012/Acomb-Landing-WTW-2012.pdf?looking=case-study


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Key Words :- waterworks river abstraction

Viewing the Site :- Site is best seen from the train when travelling into or out of York station from the north

Address :- Landing Lane, Acomb, York, North Yorkshire, YO26 6AG
Grid Ref :- SE 57793 53141
Co-ordinates :- Lat 53.971119 , Long -1.120444
Local Authority :- York City Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - North Riding
Site Status :- Site extant - Protected status unknown
Site Condition :- Operational site, in use for original purpose
Site Dates :- 1849 -
Record Date :- 5 June 2015

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