South Dock Pumping and Impounding Stations
South Dock Pumping Station and the original Swing Bridge. On the left is the church of St Nicholas, which was built as a mission church for seafarers in 1868.
Hydraulic Power Station, South Dock, Swansea
(today the Pump House Restaurant)
The South Dock hydraulic power station – built in the 1850s as the dock was under construction – was reconfigured c.1899 when the pump room was extended to accommodate larger, more efficient pumps – though still steam-driven – to replace the station's original pumping equipment. In the mid 1950s the power station was converted to electricity with the installation of four Chester 3-ram electric pumps plus a standby Blackstone diesel engine coupled to a Sulzer pump.
The power station provided a high-pressure water supply at 800 psi to operate all dock-related hydraulic machinery in the South Dock & Basin, including coal hoists, quayside cranes, lock gates, capstans, etc., via an underground 8” cast iron hydraulic ring-main. The station also provided a high-pressure water supply to the South Dock fishmarket for washing down the fish-landing wharf, etc.
Hydraulic pressure was controlled at a constant 800 psi. by an adjacent hydraulic accumulator consisting of a a large vertical cast-iron cylinder holding a column of water pressurised by a ram weighted by a large ballast tank suspended from the cross-head of the ram.
As the power station's pumps pressurised the hydraulic ring-main, the accumulator cylinder – connected directly at its base to the ring-main – was automatically pressurised, forcing the ram up to its maximum height of around twenty feet (6 metres), at which point a sensor would cut in to stop the pumps. As the ram slowly descended and approached the bottom of its travel, the pumps would automatically start up again.
The hydraulic accumulator was needed to cope with sudden demands and fluctuations in the ring-main system when a number of hydraulic appliances were being operated at the same time, and it also allowed time for the hydraulic pumps to run up to full speed in preparation for any further demand. The last cargo-handling appliance to use high-pressure water from the power station was a coal hoist used for bunkering Consolidated Fisheries’ fleet of deep-sea trawlers which was withdrawn from Swansea in 1957.
Unfortunately the South Dock power station's hydraulic accumulator came to a catastrophic end around 1960 when the counterweight ballast tank parted company from the ram cross-head and crashed down from some considerable height, causing the unrestrained hydraulically-charged ram to rocket upwards and lodge itself in the accumulator tower roof.
Vivian Howells &
Ian Rogerson
Florence Musfrat in the South Dock in 1910. Note the new swing bridge installed in the 1890s.
South Dock swing bridge with the South Dock power station in the background. The boiler house and stack were demolished when the pumps were changed over to electricity in the early 1960s.
