History

Land was purchased for the construction of Mill Meece Pumping Station in 1899 to supplement the already existing Hatton pumping station, located just a few miles away. However, problems locating water meant it was 1907 before land at the current location was purchased and construction could begin. The presence of a major geological fault in the area cuts off water from the location originally chosen and led to a series of bore holes being dug in the neighbouring area to precisely locate an alternative position for the pumping station.

In 1912 a total of eleven manufacturers quoted the Staffordshire Potteries Water Company for the supply of one condensing pumping engine, two boilers and associated ancillary machinery. After a period of negotiation the contract was awarded to Aston Frost of Bank Top Foundry, Blackburn, who promised delivery in 9 months, with a further 3 months required to erect the machinery on site. Aston Frost had requested that a 10x12ft hole be left in the end wall of the engine house to allow installation, but when the engine arrived in June 1914 the only way of installing it was through the existing doorway (before the frame was fitted).

A series of problems, including the First World War, delayed the commissioning process so it was 1919 before water was regularly being pumped from Mill Meece into Hanchurch reservoir. Just six years later, in 1925, work began on installing a second pumping engine. When the station was originally built the company was uncertain whether to stagger the costs by installing only one engine, or to finance the whole project at once and install the two together. Eventually the chosen option was the installation of only one, although on the contract Aston Frost was required to install the fixings for a second engine, which could be installed at a later date.

The contract for the second engine stipulated that it was to be as similar to the first as possible, this was presumably not only for aesthetic reasons, but also to match the engine fixings originally installed by Aston Frost. The contract for the expansion of the pumping station was awarded to Hawthorne Davey & Co. of Leeds in January 1926 for £11,230. This included the installation of a second pumping engine & pumps to match the first, a third boiler, and a feed water purifier building with Weir feed pumps. The new Weir pumps replaced the engine driven feed pump and injector used previously. The new engine started work in 1928, with the last of a series of new bore holes completed the following year.

All ran smoothly with each engine driving two pumps; one located at the bottom of the bore hole lifting water to a holding tank at surface, then a ram pump located in the engine room moved the water to the nearby Hanchurch reservoir. In 1937 plans for change saw the bore hole pump on the Aston Frost engine replaced by two electric pumps, at the same time the engine house was extended to house two further electric pumps to act as standbys for the steam engines, which continued to pump water to the reservoir.

Development at Mill Meece settled down again after the installation of the new pumps until 1951, when the possibility of increasing capacity by replacement of the engines with steam turbines, operating from the existing boilers was investigated. The idea was eventually dropped when the delivery date was estimated to be 1957, instead a Mather & Platt electric pumping system was installed in the second bore hole, leaving the steam engines to continue lifting water to the reservoir. In 1965 mechanical stokers were fitted to the boilers, requiring a short extension to the boiler house to hold the coal.

In 1974 the "Staffordshire Potteries Water Board" (who bought the original Staffordshire Potteries Water Company in 1925) became the "North Staffordshire Water Supply Division" of "Severn Trent Water Authority". Four years later, in 1978, plans were again being made to replace the steam engines, this time by the installation of 2 new multi-stage submersible pumps able to deliver 4 million gallons of water a day directly from the base of the borehole to Hanchurch reservoir. The following year the control panels for the new installation were housed in a small building alongside the pumping station, the steam engines finally coming out of service on 22nd December 1979. The "Mill Meece Pumping Station Preservation Trust Ltd." took out a 99 year lease to restore, maintain and operate the steam engines on May 31st 1981.