Description

Dated 1931, with filtration plant mechanical equipment designed by Paterson Candy International for Grangemouth Town Council. Closed 1975, equipment upgraded 1985, site re-opened 1989 and finally closed 2000, sold into private ownership 2006. Monumental, 2-storey over raised battered basement, 4-bay, rectangular-plan, Italianate style former pump house with pyramidally-roofed, 4 stage, finialled angle tower. Prominently sited on hills to N of North Third Reservoir, with little altered interior and rare retention of early rapid gravity filters. Dry dash over brick and concrete construction. Banded cill courses and eaves course. Broad doorpiece with raised margin and moulded plaque with 'GWW 1931'. Square-headed windows at ground and semicircular windows at 1st floor, tower windows and that to SE all tripartite with concrete mullions, in full-height recessed bays. Concrete basement walls almost 2" thick.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: entrance elevation to NW with dominant tower projecting at outer left and comprising brick forestair leading to part-glazed, 2-leaf timber door rising through 1st (basement) and 2nd stages, windows to 3rd and 4th stages. Broad gabled elevation to SE with later door in large semicircular window and gunloop in gablehead. Regularly-fenestrated bays to NE and SW, latter with windows only at 1st floor. Concrete clad 'box' at NE basement for running water to storage tanks at S.

Multi-pane glazing pattern with hopper-type openings in metal windows. Grey slates with large horizontal rooflights. Roof with shallow overhang.

INTERIOR: good interior detail retained including glazed bricks throughout, those to window cills rounded, and voussoired over arches. Entrance hall with horizontal Art Deco style patterning to glazed bricks and mosaic tiled floor with Grangemouth Town Emblem 'INGENIUM VINCIT OMNIA' (slightly damaged). Ground floor with narrow room to NE containing filter outlets, controls and valves, large tanks (see 1st floor detail below) fill remaining space. Dog-leg staircase in tower. Tower room with water tank and complex metal roof structure supporting roof lined with Belgian pine. 1st floor open-plan with 3 settling/filter tanks (rapid gravity filters), pumping equipment, ironwork roof structure and Belgian pine roof lining.

Statement of Interest

The Pump House of the North Third Water Treatment plant is a largely unaltered example containing early equipment. It is prominently sited and the striking Italianate design is of some quality. It contains possibly one of the first rapid gravity filters used in Scotland and is probably the only surviving example in such a complete state. However, owing to the current state of research into this subject it has not been possible at present (2007) to establish the rarity of this type of filter. This area to the northeast of Stirling is more commonly known for the reservoirs built on the Touch Estate which supplied water to Stirling. The North Third Reservoir was built for Grangemouth Town Council in 1905, at which time the entrance gates and Engineer's House with boardroom were also constructed. A meter house which remains in Scottish Water ownership, dates from an earlier period. There are also water storage tanks immediately to the south of the treatment works.

In 1983, a renovation report (project 647) produced for the Scottish Water Board states that the filter station was built in 1931 by Grangemouth Town Council and was designed by Paterson Candy International, who remain recognized world leaders in water and wastewater treatment process engineering. The rapid gravity filters at this plant operated through three massive tanks containing sand filters (open at 1st floor level). Water entered at a small square tank and was pumped up and over wooden baffles, at this stage it was mixed with chemicals creating a 'floc' (dirt and chemicals join) which settles on the sand while water filters through. The earlier slow sand filters were the first effective municipal water treatment filters, but could not compete with the rapid gravity method which could filter 2 million gallons per day.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17842580

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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