Victorian Pumping Station

Alongside the Cromford Canal in the small copse of evergreen trees at the back of the sanitary station at Langley Mill is a symmetrical Victorian building, but what you see is only half the building as it extends to about 15 feet below ground level.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century Joseph Bazalgette in London and Marriott Ogle Tarbotton, Borough Engineer in Nottingham were improving public health and the quality of life by improved sewage systems and pure drinking water free from contamination by human detritus.   These improvements were not only in the cities, new urban areas such as Eastwood were improved by the building of a sewage works at Milnhay, near Anchor Bridge on the Erewash Canal; these works were carried out by Basford Rural Sanitary Authority in 1894.

Originally used as part of the local sewage system, the Victorian Pumping Station was repurposed by Erewash Canal Association Langley Mill work party volunteers to pump water from the Erewash Canal below the Langley Bridge lock to replenish water levels in the Cromford Canal Basin and boatyard moorings above the lock. It was re-opened in 1993...