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Summary

The Starcross Pumping House, the only complete pumping house to survive from the three operational atmospheric lines in the British Isles. Dates from 1845. Designed by Brunel. Heavy Italianate style with tower and massive brick chimney. The chimney, the only one now standing of its type, was built without scaffolding. Although the machinery has gone, many details survive to indicate the original function of the building. Part of the building was converted to a chapel in 1869. Now a museum.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (I) 1097684: THE STARCROSS PUMPING HOUSE

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX98SE/51
• Old Listed Building Ref (I)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• PUMPING STATION (XIX - 1801 AD to 1900 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, SX98SE12 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV336479.

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

'Methodist Chapel (Wesleyan)' marked on 1880s-1890s first edition 25 inch Ordnance Survey map.

Department of Environment, 1949, St. Thomas Rd, 75 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV336476.

19th century. Large building in heavy Italianate style with tower and two wings. Roof of tower rmoved as unsafe. Pantiles. South end has large opening for engines.

English Heritage, 1952(Updated, Starcross (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV336481.

The Starcross Pumping House (formerly listed as Pumping Station).
Pumping house of the South Devon Atmospheric Railway, projected to run between Exeter and Plymouth. 1845, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the South Devon Railway Company. Ashlar red sandstone with Bath stone dressings; hipped Roman tile roof (a 1980s replacement of the original); massive brick chimney built within a rectangular sandstone ashlar tower, tower and chimney reduced in height by 50 foot after storm damage in the late 19th century. Italianate, the style of all the pumping houses on the line.
Plan: L plan, with the chimney in the angle between the 2 blocks. The west block contained the boilers, the beam engine was contained in a taller block to the east.
The construction of the chimney, built without scaffolding, is said to be a unique survival. After the economic failure of the atmospheric line in 1848 various alterations to the pumping house were carried out including adaptation of the west block as an engine shed for steam locomotives. In 1869 the east block was partly converted for use as a Wesleyan Chapel until 1950 (Stell). The building was semi-derelict until 1981 when it was sold away from British Rail, repaired and opened as Museum of the Atmospheric Railway.
Exterior: West block single-storey, east block two storey. Impressive external details with variation to the heavy stone window surrounds. The east block, with two tiers of windows, has a deep plinth, a moulded string below the upper windows and deep eaves with a moulded eaves cornice carried on well-detailed moulded stone brackets. Symmetrical one window north elevation with a two-leaf door with glazed fanlight below a round-headed window with a stone sill, a keystone and projecting jambs with bases and capitals. Paired first floor window with a stone sill on brackets, keystones and eared architraves. Asymmetrical three-bay east elevation, the left hand lower tier window with a sill on brackets, a moulded cornice and left and right windows with keyblocks with a rounded niche in the centre. Three first floor windows with keyblocks, stone sills and eared architraves, identical to the first floor windows in the other elevations. Blocked round-headed doorway to the left. The south elevation has a ground floor doorway with heavy moulded architrave with a keystone and windows above identical to those in the north elevation. The west block has a lower roofline and plinth. The north elevation has three windows, a central tripartite window with a stone sill on brackets, moulded architrave and keystones, flanked by similar one light windows. The south elevation has two two-light windows with stone sills on brackets and keystones. The west gable end, originally symmetrical, was altered after the atmospheric railway was closed but preserves an original round-headed doorway to the left with a recessed rusticated Bath stone arch with a keystone. Round-headed upper opening blocked. To the right a tall round-headed opening dates from the period when building was adapted as an engine shed for steam locomotives. The tower, rectangular on plan and treated as a companile, has a deep plinth and rusticated quoins between the plinth and moulded string course with clasping pilasters above and pilasters in the centre of each face. The south and west elevations have round-headed slit windows with keystones and voussoirs above the plinth and similar windows without voussoirs lighting the spiral stair round the chimney. The tower was originally crowned with a heavy cornice on moulded brackets.
Interior: No machinery survives but the shell of the building is intact including the roof trusses: queen post and strut to the boiler house, king post over the taller block with original iron ties. Many details survive to indicate the original function of the building: the duct that carried smoke from the boilers to the chimney; recesses cut into the walls of the taller block for the flywheel, and the original massive crossbeams in the taller block, supported on corbels. These were used for access to the upper parts of the machinery before they were used to support a floor. The chimney, the only existing one of its type, was erected without scaffolding. The cylindrical brick shaft is enclosed by a spiral stair with slate steps that allowed both shaft and tower to be built simultaneously without scaffolding. Other features associated with the pumping house, including a massive water tank, exist below ground and are of historic and archaeological interest.
Starcross is the only complete Pumping House to survive from the three operational atmospheric lines in the British Isles. The only other surviving artefacts from the short-lived South Devon Atmospheric Railway are two sections of atmospheric tubing, one held by the museum, another by the museum at Swindon. Brunel's son is said to have destroyed many of the papers relating to his father's work on the railway, on the basis that the scheme reflected poorly on the reputation of his father (information from owner of the museum).
A building of considerable architectural distinction (and suprisingly well-preserved considering its history between 1848 and 1981) and of outstanding historic interest. The Italianate treatment of the chimney, five years before the publication of Ruskin's Stones of Venice, reflects Brunel's 'consciousness of design and current architectural ideas' (Douet) and the only other example of the winding stair constructon for a chimney known to date is Thomas Cubitt's Thamesbanks works (1846),demolished.
An account of the railway, including two views of the pumping station when the tower and chimney were complete, is given in Charles Hadfield's Atmospheric Railways (1985). Information on the chimney from Jim Douet, unpublished notes. Other details: LBS No 85933.

Minchinton, W. E., 1973, Industrial Archaeology in Devon, 8 (Monograph). SDV7016.

The Atmospheric Railway. The system was installed between Exeter and Teignmouth in 1847 and then to Newton Abbot in 1848. Services ended on 5th September 1848. The atmospheric tube was removed and a piece can now beseen in the Swindon Railway Museum. Only the pumping engine houses survive. The Starcross engine house and the Torre engine house are the only complete ones remaining; but parts of the buildings are visible at Exeter and Totnes.

Timms, S. C., 1984, Starcross Pumping House (Personal Comment). SDV336477.

After a period of under-use, this building was restored and converted to a museum in early 1980s.

Timms, S. C., 1986, Starcross Pumping House (Site Visit). SDV336478.

Features connected with the working of the pumping house revealed on north side.

1986, Untitled Source (Photograph). SDV336480.

Other details: In DCC con collection, film 678.

McCallum, D., 1994, Brunel Pumping House, Starcross (Correspondence). SDV346896.

A large part of the building has been floored-in. Current proposal for conversion of first floor into a clubroom.

Pink, F., 2014-2015, South Devon Coast Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey Desk-Based Assessment (Interpretation). SDV357736.

R. B. M., 2018, Underground Reservoirs at Starcross Pumping House: Historic Buuilding Record (Report - Survey). SDV361957.

Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by BAM Nuttall Ltd to produce an Historic England Level 2 historic building record (HBR) of an underground reservoir beneath Starcross Fishing and Cruising Club car park. The reservoir is associated with the adjacent mid-19th century Grade 1 Listed Starcross Pumping House, which was part of the South Devon Railway (SDR) constructed in the mid-1880s by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (see MDV84777 for details on underground reservoir).

The South Devon Railway Company built and operated the railway from Exeter to Plymouth and Torquay in Devon. It was a 7ft ¼ in (2.14m) broad gauge railway built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The line had to traverse difficult hilly terrain, and the company adopted the atmospheric system in which trains were drawn by a piston in a tube laid between the rails, a vacuum being created by stationary engines. The company operated from 1846 to 1876 when it was taken over by The Great Western Railway.

Starcross engine house is the most intact of the engine houses that were actually used for the purpose they were designed for. The chimney was reduced in height for safety reasons many years ago. After the engines ceased work, the boiler house was used by coal merchants until 1981. The engine area was used as a Wesleyan Church from 1867 to 1958, after which it was used as a youth club for a few years. The whole building was sold and reopened as a museum for the atmospheric railway in 1982. This has since closed and the building was developed internally for use by the local Starcross Fishing and Cruising Club. The building was first listed Grade 1 in 1952 with the latest amendments in 1988. Dawlish engine house was largely demolished in 1873.

Sources / Further Reading

SDV336179	Cartographic: Ordnance Survey. 1880-1899. First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map. First Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map. Map (Digital).
SDV336476	List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest: Department of Environment. 1949. St. Thomas Rd. Historic Houses Register. A4 Spiral Bound. 75.
SDV336477	Personal Comment: Timms, S. C.. 1984. Starcross Pumping House. Not Applicable.
SDV336478	Site Visit: Timms, S. C.. 1986. Starcross Pumping House. Not applicable. Not Applicable.
SDV336479	Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card: Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division. SX98SE12. Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card. Card Index.
SDV336480	Photograph: 1986. Photograph (Paper).
SDV336481	List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest: English Heritage. 1952(Updated. Starcross. Historic Houses Register. Website.
SDV346896	Correspondence: McCallum, D.. 1994. Brunel Pumping House, Starcross. Letter to Local Planning Authority. A4 Stapled + Digital.
SDV357736	Interpretation: Pink, F.. 2014-2015. South Devon Coast Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey Desk-Based Assessment. AC Archaeology Report. Digital.
	Linked documents:1
SDV361957	Report - Survey: R. B. M.. 2018. Underground Reservoirs at Starcross Pumping House: Historic Buuilding Record. Wessex Archaeology. 205291.03. Digital.
SDV7016	Monograph: Minchinton, W. E.. 1973. Industrial Archaeology in Devon. Industrial Archaeology in Devon. Paperback Volume. 8.

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV3929 - Unnamed Event
• EDV7652 - Historic Building Recording: Underground Reservoirs at Starcross Pumping House (Ref: 205291.03)

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