| Barry Smith in Shropshire reports
that 30 years ago he noticed a pump flange in the ground at the back of his
house, so he bought an old water pump and bolted it to the flange, simply as a
garden feature. About a year ago he was doing some excavation work in the area
of the pump and discovered a filled-in well - what else to do but restore both
the well and the pump? |
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| The digging out of the well turned
out to be a major task, with bricks and rubble still being removed at a depth
of 17'. The whole process was complicated by the need to pump out water at
regular intervals - which at least confirmed that there was still water within
reach. The original cast iron downpipe was found to be in situ but badly
corroded and blocked: eventually it simply broke off. |
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| A new downpipe was made up from a
17' length of 2" stainless steel with a flange welded at the top end to bolt it
to the base of the pump and a filter fitted to a flange at the bottom end.
Gaskets were made and fitted between all flanges. As a nice finishing touch,
the downpipe was covered in matt black vinyl and one foot markings added, so as
to indicate the water depth. |
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| The pump itself needed a lot of
attention - the plunger was in a bad state and the inside surface of the barrel
was severely corroded. |
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| The only solution was to make a
thin-walled stainless steel liner, which fitted snugly within the barrel, the
inside diameter being ideal for a new 75mm plunger (purchased from the
ever-reliable W. Robinson & Sons). A flange was welded to the end of the
liner, so as to secure it to the pump. |
| A new inlet valve
leather was found to be available at very reasonable cost, but in the USA and
the vendors wouldn't supply it to the UK. As it happened, our intrepid pump
restorer was going to America for a holiday, and simply arranged for the spare
part to be delivered to his US hotel address. |
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| Barry made some steel mounting
brackets to hold the pump and downpipe, did a bit of above-ground bricklaying
and fitted a safety grill over the well (not to mention some hidden electric
lighting). |
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| Clearly some significant skills were
employed to get this old pump working again, but it just shows what can be
done. |
