Tees Cottage Pumping Station is a Victorian waterworks at Darlington in the North East of England which began supplying water to Darlington in 1849. It is a scheduled ancient with two completely original pumping engines in full working order. These are displayed running under their pumping load. One engine is a two cylinder compound steam beam engine, still supplied from its original Lancashire boilers and driving its original pumps. The engines are housed in their own purpose built buildings, dating from 1847 to 1901 in themselves, superb examples of Victorian architecture. The engines and buildings are carefully maintained, preserved and run by volunteers, supported by the site owner Northumbrian Water. Following the visit we drove the short distance to Blackwell Grange Hotel for Sunday lunch.
