Crofton Pumping Station was originally built to raise water for the Kennet and Avon Canal. For well over 200 years it has carried out this work. For more than 100 years of its life Crofton was owned by the Great Western Railway. As well as the Crofton pumping water for the canal during this time, it also supplied water to GWR railway locomotives. The contract that GWR signed was to provide water to the K&A Canal “in perpetuity”. Indeed, if it were not for our relationship with GWR Crofton would probably not have survived at all. To celebrate this long relationship with the railways, Crofton’s mighty Beam Engines will be in steam for the August Bank Holiday weekend, Sunday 24th and Monday 25th, and on the Anniversary weekend of the 27th and 28th of September.
To celebrate Railway 200 and our small part in the history of the railways we will have an exhibition of all things GWR at Crofton, including displays of GWR artefacts, images and a chronicled timeline of our link with the railways. Get a glimpse of our relationship with the railway engineering shop at Swindon, and how Crofton provided light relief for apprentices. Learn about GWR even suppling Crofton with a small saddle tank engine (probably an engine called Prince) to keep the pumps going when our engines failed. Our knowledgeable volunteers will demonstrate some of the GWR tools still in use to this day, as they stoke our boiler and drive our engines so that visitors can experience the power of steam in action.
Children’s activities will include a special trail guiding them round our station, seeking out our GWR tools and a crafting area for children to be able use their imagination to describe, draw and even have a go at junk modelling a train.