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Mill Meece Pumping Station is a pumping station, located in the village of Mill Meece in Staffordshire, England. Its function, powered by steam engines, was to pump water from boreholes to a reservoir in Hanchurch, from which it flows by gravity to supply the Potteries area.
Mill Meece pumping station lies approximately 5 miles west of Stone. It is the second pumping station to be constructed in the area, the first being three miles to the north in the hamlet of Hatton. There are four boreholes on the Mill Meece site from which water is lifted.
Water is raised at Mill Meece by lift pumps which deliver water to an underground tank. From there the water is lifted further by ram pumps. Both the lift and ram pumps are powered by two horizontal tandem compound Corliss valve engines using steam raised by three Lancashire boilers. The efficiency of steam-raising is increased by a Green's economiser.
Construction of the pumping station was authorised by the Staffordshire Potteries Waterworks Act 1912 (2 & 3 Geo. 5. c. lxxv).
The pumping station was first put to work with one engine, two boreholes and two boilers in 1915 though did not pump to the public water supply until 1919. The second engine pumping from two new boreholes first pumped water in 1928. Both engines continued to operate until 22 December 1979. Water is still pumped from the Mill Meece site by electric pumps, but the steam engines remain in their original location.
The pumping station has seen extensive restoration since it was taken over by the Mill Meece Preservation Trust with the first open day being hosted on 30 May 1981.
On 18–19 July 2021 the middle boiler was returned to service and both the Ashton Frost Engine and Hathorn Davey Engine saw motion under steam once again.
Mill Meece pumping station is now operated by a charity, the Mill Meece Pumping Station Preservation Trust. The website listed below provides details of when it is open to the public.
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be transformed, by a connecting rod and crank, into rotational force for work. The term "steam engine" is most commonly applied to reciprocating engines as just described, although some authorities have also referred to the steam turbine and devices such as Hero's aeolipile as "steam engines". The essential feature of steam engines is that they are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separated from the combustion products. The ideal thermodynamic cycle used to analyze this process is called the Rankine cycle. In general usage, the term steam engine can refer to either complete steam plants, such as railway steam locomotives and portable engines, or may refer to the piston or turbine machinery alone, as in the beam engine and stationary steam engine.
Thomas Savery was an English inventor and engineer. He invented the first commercially used steam-powered device, a steam pump which is often referred to as the "Savery engine". Savery's steam pump was a revolutionary method of pumping water, which improved mine drainage and made widespread public water supply practicable.
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