River Tyne

The remains of this derelict water pump-house stand on the N bank of the River Tyne 440m WSW of the Abbey Bridge (NT57SW 8). The rectangular structure, which is first depicted on the 2nd edition of the OS 6-inch map and annotated ‘Water House’ (Haddingtonshire 1908, Sheet X.NE), is of brick and breeze-block construction, with the bricks forming an inner ‘skin’ and the breeze-blocks an outside face. Both are liberally covered with graffiti. The roof, which slopes gently down from SSE to NNW, is currently of corrugated tin sheets secured on a light steel frame, but this is almost certainly not original. There is an entrance in the NNW side, a bricked-up window in the WSW end and a small square opening high up in the SSE side, close to the WSW end. Within the litter-strewn interior there is a narrow concrete channel that runs across the floor from ENE to WSW, where it continues under the wall. This channel, which is offset towards the SSE side of the building, contains a valve and the remains of piping; another valve stands just inside the threshold of the doorway. An engine, now removed, would have stood over the ENE of the channel.

Visited by HES Survey and Recording (JRS) 20 June 2020.