The History of Mill Meece Pumping Station
Mill Meece was evidently chosen as a suitable source of
supply because of its proximity to the successful development at Hatton and the
reservoir at Hanchurch.
By 1899, when the Company decided to develop a second
site in the Meece valley, the original pair of compound rotary beam steam
engines at Hatton had recently been supplemented by a horizontal cross compound
rotary engine. Plans were already in hand to meet the impending shortage of
water by a further increase in the rate of abstraction, this was to be achieved
by installing a horizontal tandem compound rotary engine at the same site.
With six wells and five boreholes at one station, it was
considered that the reliable yield would be exceeded by further abstraction at
Hatton, and the additional boreholes should be within the same geological series
but at some distance away.
The Company purchased 7.22 acres of land at Mill Meece
for £500 from Mr. Thomas Wibberley of The Grange near Stone. The field was part
of Birch House Farm, and the conveyance was dated 9th May 1899.
Initially a well gave very poor results when it had been
expected that a copious supply would be obtained possibly under artesian
conditions as at Hatton. It was concluded that the well was on the wrong side of
a major geological fault and a pilot hole was next drilled on the Northern
boundary of the Company's land. This borehole was 15 inches in diameter reducing
to 9 inches in diameter and was commenced on 15th December 1899 but was
abandoned by the first contract about 176 feet below ground level, in very hard
Keuper marl. The second contractor started work in 1901 but the pilot hole was
abandoned at a depth 1196 feet when the pebble beds, which comprised the main
aquifer, were not found.
Further boreholes and a well were sunk between 1903 and
1909 two fields further to the North on the plot in which the station was
eventually built. This area of 2.46 acres, forming part of Mill House Farm, was
acquired from the Swynnerton Estate trustees by a conveyance dated 29th July
1907 for £400. The principle trustee was Mr. Basil Fitzherbert who lived nearby
at Swynnerton Park and had previously sold both the Hanchurch and Hatton sites
to the Company.