to ‘bull engine’ enthusiasts
The Dorothea Award for Conservation has gone to a team of volunteers who have together spent more than 7,000 hours restoring the ‘Bull’ steam engine at Kew Bridge Pumping Station in West London.
The giant steam-powered water pump was designed by Edward Bull and made in 1856, but had been out action and rusting away for 60 years. Its single cylinder is nearly two metres in diameter, and passes through three floors of the building.
Now, thanks to seven years of voluntary work and at a cost of about £45,000, the engine has been fully restored. It is the largest engine of its type in existence and the only one in the world that still works.
Peter Meehan, director of Dorothea Restorations, said: “This massive effort by dedicated and high-skilled volunteers is a superb example of the work that the Dorothea Award for Conservation was set up to recognise.
“Without this kind of heroic undertaking, our industrial heritage could quite literally rust away.”
Dorothea Restorations has sponsored the annual Dorothea Conservation Award since 1984. It is adjudicated independently by the Association for Industrial Archaeology.