MANWEB Depots Pumpfields- Vauxhall Road Liverpool

This is view of the middle area of Pumpfields depot which brings back a few memories.

thanks to Julie Clark for photo.

On the photo, shown above, to the front left is the tip of the corrugated roofed canteen and across the road from here was the wages office and a set of time clocks. The building section had the area behind this for the joiners and other civil trades' workshop and material storage. The main building housed, on the first floor with access on the left end as we are looking, the contracting department, and also a door to fitting foreman’s office. The large doors to left of sandbags were access to a storage area for HV equipment ready for distributing to various sites or in some cases recovered plant. Moving gantry cranes operated in the building to aid loading vehicles used to transport from manufactures or Queensferry Stores. At the centre of this very large building were a number of 33 / 6.6KV transformers and associated switchgear to distribute power to surrounding areas. Also in this in same building was located a number of material stores for contracting and fitting departments. At the end of the building was an area used for loading lorries stores and staff, also in these early days hand carts took teams into the local district for work on the system. A blacksmiths workshop was located in one corner of the yard and it was possible to walk through this onto the banks of Leeds Liverpool Canal which formed the bottom boundary to the site. This in earlier times had been the means of delivering coal to the former generating station. On the photo to the right hand side was the battery work shop and carboys can be seen outside ready for use or return to manufactures. Jimmy Walsh was the battery man I remember. At this corner can be noted a van ready to leave the depot. There was also a vast network of tunnels mainly used for cable distribution. One passed under the rear of the site under the canal and was accessible from Pall Mall. Another was accessed under the fitting workshop with the tunnel emerging in Vauxhall Road near the gate house. (two of our section were tasked with renewing the lighting in this tunnel that was a little damp and smelly.) Just outside the gate house was a public urinal but most of the smell emanated from the adjacent tannery and offal yards. There was a gate house between two sets of gates for access and egress. This whole site was a former power station with generators but well before my time.