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 November 2008

Abbey Mills Pumping Station

Picture from THAMES WATER Abbey Mills Pumping Station cc. 1940

Abbey Mills East Chimney
Here's the photo you requested : This is the East Chimney shortly before
both chimneys were taken down and it dates from the early 1940's. It has
the photo of a barrage balloon in the top left corner. They were approx 210
feet tall so they towered over Abbey Mills Pumping Station. The venting
chimneys were no longer in use during the 1940's as the station had
switched over to electricity as its primary fuel source.
The war office decided that the risk of one or both of the chimneys being
hit by German bombs in WW2 would cause the chimneys to topple onto the
station, and this would have badly damaged the station if not completely
destroying it, so they were unfortunately taken down.

This is such an interesting story but goes to show that those manning the balloons were

protecting areas that were quite serious targets and thus were in the front line of events.

 Picture and information Courtesy  of:

 Matthew Wood                                                             
 Wastewater Archivist                                                     
 Technical Information                                                    
                                                                          
 Tel. 0118 3738509 (38509 internally)
 Fax. 0118 3738696 (38696 internally)
E-mail: matthew.wood@Thameswater.co.uk