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Engineers Cottage, Claverton Pumping Station


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Recent info from NABO re the potential sale of the engineers cottage at Claverton, there is a link to a 38 degrees petition if anyone wishes to sign it.

 

Claverton K&A. NABO has been made aware of attempts by the volunteer group who run the Claverton Pumping Station (having recently re-restored the waterwheel) to save its (unlisted) engineman's cottage from being sold by CRT. The Claverton group has asked CRT if they could take it over and turn it into a visitor centre. The building would be restored by volunteers whereever possible. This has been considered by an external CRT tourism consultant, but CRT has decided that they still wish to sell. An online petition against this decision has been started: See:

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-engine-man-s-cottage-at-claverton-pumping-station

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It makes me cross and sad, CaRT are spending money on a rebranding so that can reach more of the public then they miss out on real opportunities to properly promote themselves. Just spent a month in Chester and up there anybody who knows who CaRT are tends to hate them due to them trying to "do property deals" that are not in the interests of the local population.

 

A good reputation has to be built by hard work and good decisions, NOT by employing image consultants.

 

............Dave

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Why should an organisation that promotes canals, i e the CRT, want to devalue a heritage structure such as Claverton? If that is the case, that is....

 

Still, in view of the many posts on this site supporting, commenting or deploring the CRT actions of late like the sale of land (Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal at Bury to name a recent example), is there a financial directive that is the basis of their current policy?

 

It may be a false hope to restore and keep all that is possible on British waterways, yet those many dedicated people who worked for such goals, and those that still do deserve to have their voices heard and achieve as much as is possible.

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I have always assumed that one of the primary reasons for putting Crt in control of the waterways was to sell off property that may have been contentious if done by a public body. 

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I'll preface my remarks by saying that I've never seen this building.

The story leaves me in two minds. I can see why the pumpers (as I'll call them for convenience) would like to retain the building.

But the only photo of it which I can find on the internet shows it in happier, inhabited times. It is described as now being semi-derelict and in poor condition. Have the pumpers got the means to rebuild it and, if so, how come they haven't done so already?

Many buildings built for operational waterways staff have been sold and are now private dwellings. They are called lock cottages. While waterways do still own some (such as Cropredy, which has had the same tenant in for ten years and is maintained in good condition), many others are now homes to private individuals or families. The same applies to many of the lock houses on the French waterways, for example.

If the property is sold as a dwelling, the owners will rebuild it to make it habitable. I can see no reason why a developer would knock it down, as it has poor access and they therefore wouldn't get planning permission to build a new house on the site. The lock cottage at Great Bourton, for example, was in a similar situation, but is now being gradually rebuilt by the couple who have bought it. Otherwise it would presumably have just crumbled away over the years.

One of the reasons put forward for its retention by the pumpers seems to me specious: that it could provide a toilet facility for visitors to the pumping station. But, if these people are indeed engineers, surely it would not be beyond their wit to provide such a facility elsewhere on the site? If this facility is so earnestly desired, how come they haven't made it available already?

It may be that my view is misguided, but I look forward to hearing why.

 

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Quote

 

It's very much a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't. Organizations see properties as a cash resource. We -as the public see then as fixed assets to be preserved as best they may be A no win situation.

What would 'you' (generic) do  if you were in CaRT's management? Funds from all sources are limited and decreasing in value day by day. An organisation such as the National Trust get support from the public, but as Joe Public would I support the canals as soggy ditches full of moored boats? I think not.

Future generations will probably curse 'us' for not taking better care - but will they? There's scant regard for general environment and that includes 'heritage'. Everything revolves around just surviving and 'technology'.

Let it all fall in and future WRG recover the system in future generations?

My axe to grind is that the Canals are a losing cause BUT I will do my (little) damnest  to prevent the bogey getting their hands on My River and its property portfolio. I'd like to help elsewhere, but I'm a mere mortal. One wide ditch is enough... 

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32 minutes ago, OldGoat said:

It's very much a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't. Organizations see properties as a cash resource. We -as the public see then as fixed assets to be preserved as best they may be A no win situation.

What would 'you' (generic) do  if you were in CaRT's management? Funds from all sources are limited and decreasing in value day by day. An organisation such as the National Trust get support from the public, but as Joe Public would I support the canals as soggy ditches full of moored boats? I think not.

Future generations will probably curse 'us' for not taking better care - but will they? There's scant regard for general environment and that includes 'heritage'. Everything revolves around just surviving and 'technology'.

Let it all fall in and future WRG recover the system in future generations?

My axe to grind is that the Canals are a losing cause BUT I will do my (little) damnest  to prevent the bogey getting their hands on My River and its property portfolio. I'd like to help elsewhere, but I'm a mere mortal. One wide ditch is enough... 

I think you, like me, have given up on the canals.

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The Volunteers at Claverton, have an enormous body of skills, which could easily be harnessed to restore the cottage. It is an integral element in the industrial area and should be retained as part of the site.

 

Edited to add:-  I have signed the petition

Edited by David Schweizer
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Some waterside properties do go for bargain prices if they don't have road access, remember the cottage at Cobblers lock???

 

Why don't you go to the auction and give it a shot? You could then rent it back to the pumpers on a 100 year lease at a nominal rent to pay a slightly better return than the bank. Its a pretty good bet because they are going to restore it at their own expense, if they default on the rent then you get a restored or at least partly restored property, If (hopefully) things go well and they pay the rent then you are making a positive contribution to the K&A and getting a bit of interest.

 

.........Dave

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13 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Yes but what AUCTION? I keep asking!!

I suspect its a special auction that only special people are told about ?

 

...............Dave

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3 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Like the one when they sold RUSSIA?

You missed a real bargain there, I don't think it was an auction though, I thought the chosen few just helped themselves. Totally corrupt, not like how we do privatisation in Engerland.

 

............Dave

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1 minute ago, dmr said:

You missed a real bargain there, I don't think it was an auction though, I thought the chosen few just helped themselves. Totally corrupt, not like how we do privatisation in Engerland.

 

............Dave

 

Quite. I was keeping a careful eye open for it to come on the market, but it never did. 

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18 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Have you limited yourself to The Wey and The Thames now then?

 

Or somewhere else?

Wey, Thames at the mo. Canals as a visitor. To get to Nene and Ouse. If ever cc'ed I would eat my words. ;)

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Looking at the English Heritage Listings

 

Claverton Pump House is listed Grade II as is the bridge over the south leat

 

Pumping Station. Designed by John Rennie and erected by Fox of Bristol, for the Kennet and Avon Canal Company. Opened 1813; ceased function in 1952 but restored 1969-75. Consists of the pump house at the west and the wheel house to the east. Pump house: ashlar and hipped slate roof; single round-headed door and casement window in south gable end; the west elevation has 3 round-headed windows on the ground floor, 3 square headed casements on the first floor and a plank door at the right. The wheel house projects to the west: weather-boarded sides with 2 casement windows; ashlar east gable with 2 round-headed doors flanking a segmental headed door. The breast shot water wheel (17'6" in diameter and 11'11" wide, and now seemingly in 2 parts as altered by the Great Western Railway Co. in 1902-03) provides drive to 2 cast iron working beams which operate lift and force pumps. (Leaflet available on site.

 

Bridge. Probably c.1810-13 for Kennet and Avon Canal Company. Ashlar. Single segmental arch with central keystone. Plain ashlar band and parapet. The ends are slightly advanced as piers.

 

Looking at the First Ordnance survey for 1884. It is not obvious where the cottage is?

 

 

 

 

 

claverton1.png

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