Sunrise over the waterworks

Another early morning walk.  It's lovely at this time of the year for catching the sunrise over the North Sea but - over to the west - I never expected the old waterworks to look so good!

The Seaton Spring pumping station has a long history dating back to 1896. The 7.2 acre land was purchased by Sunderland & South Shield Water Company (S&SS Water Co) where they began to construct the pumping station over a 15 year period. This pumping station, along with 4 others in the area was built to provide drinking water to the North East coastal areas.

Construction of the pumping station required sinking 3 shafts by way of lowering the water table so the main shaft could be built. The depth of this main shaft is around 438ft with brickwork down to about 250ft and a second floor at about 350ft. The water maintains a constant depth of between 70ft and 80ft.

Water was pumped from this main rising shaft to the adjoining reservoir. From here the water was gravity fed to the community via a network of local pipes.

The pumps were steam powered until the late 1950's when electric submersible pumps were installed. The steam engine and its boilers were removed and then the chimney was felled in 1959.  The pumping station remained in use until the Kielder and Derwent reservoirs were brought into use in the late 1970's, making many of the East Coast pumping stations redundant.

The (Seaton) waterworks is the last remaining active site from over ten stations built in the Victorian and Edwardian era and is now home to Seaton Spring Water.