Swavesey and District History Society

May 2025 Meeting

At very short notice, John Sheppard of Swavesey spoke on The Revolution of Pumpimg Sewage in Cambridge.  John, a Chartered Mechanical Engineer, is a Trustee at the Cambridge Museum of Technology based in The Old Pumping Station, Cheddars Lane, with an entrance on Riverside. 

The Romans brought the first sewage treatment to England but it was not until the 1800s when four major outbreaks of cholera started in large industrial cities where living conditions were often cramped and squalid and which killed many thousands of people, that the issue was taken seriously again.  The population of England rose from 10 million in 1800 to 17 million in 1850 and it kept on rising.  The university was growing and the local population continued to rise in Cambridge, leading to a problem with sewage and smells in the River Cam along with breathing discomfort and health problems, including typhoid.  To combat the increasing problem a pumping station was built at Cheddars Lane, Milton in 1894.  37 miles off new sewer pipe were installed under Cambridge to transport sewage to the pumping station.  The still-existing original chimney, nearly 60 metres tall, is a well-known landmark and in 1992, steam engineer Fred Dibnah did repairs on it.  From the start, two impressive Hathorn Davey pumping engines, powered by steam pressure and which are still there, the last in the world, were installed to move the sewage on from the well beneath the engines to the treatment plant at Milton, 2 miles away.  Initially the waste was simply spread on fields there to fertilise grassland for livestock, with major improvement when anaerobic digestion treatment was later installed.  

Initially workers kept the fires burning 24 hours a day to produce the steam to power the engines.  At first only coal was used, but in the early 1900s the council also  started burning street rubbish collected by “scavengers” as boiler fuel.  Addenbrookes hospital also supplied limbs for burning.  Then gas and then electricity were subsequently used.

The pumping station was closed down in 1968, but volunteers maintain the steam engines, which are now on display as part of the museum.  The museum is open to visitors Fri, Sat and Sun, 10.30 to 1600.  The next in-steam event is 21 and 22 June.

Next History Society meeting- 17 June.  Richard Bentley and Over Rectory.  Richard Hewlings.