A COUPLE of weeks ago in the Derwent Valley Gazette, we told you about a rare and very old piece of technology that sits in a well beside the River Derwent in New Norfolk.

It’s a Gwynne centrifugal pump, made in London and installed at Willow Wood, originally part of the Valleyfield property on Hamilton Road.

That pump’s job was at the heart of the 240-acre (100ha) farm’s operation, delivering water to its hop fields, vegetable and fruit orchards through a 25cm pipe at an impressive 7500 litres a minute.

Not bad for machinery patented by Mr Gwynne and installed in 1857.

The Gwynne device is two metres below ground in a hand-cut well, about 70m from the river. Water intakes could be adjusted as tides changed the river’s height.

As the river water filled the well, the pump raised it to above-ground troughs from which the life-giving Derwent flowed to crops and cattle.

Power to rotate the pump’s internals was supplied by a 10-horsepower steam engine made by Ransomes and Sims. 

Although the steam boiler remains, the engine itself is gone now. The stresses on steam-powered machinery usually make them the first elements to succumb to wear and tear.

The pump, technology that was patented by the Gwynne factory, is a rarity today. A few examples are in museums around the world.

Even photographs of the original device are uncommon, and it’s thanks to Ben Clark and his dad Lex at Willow Wood that we were able to get these photos.

We’re also lucky in the Derwent Valley to have an excellent example of a Gwynne pump, and still sitting exactly where it was installed 166 years ago.