About 11 miles west of Rye, is an unusual attraction. Brede Steam Giants (in the tiny village of Brede) is a museum of water heritage pumping machinery with a nuclear bunker. It’s run by volunteers, free to enter and one of a kind in Sussex.
The steam engines that once operated here were 35 feet (10.7 m) high and capable of delivering up to 3.5 million gallons of drinking water every day to the growing town of Hastings. They operated for nearly 70 years before being left to decay. But by way of a phenomenal effort by local enthusiasts, these engines and a collection of others have been magnificently restored and are now available to go and see.
Steam giants phase 1
Back in the 1890s, Hastings was badly in need of more water for its growing population. After various political and geological wranglings, a massive overspend and an even larger feat of engineering, in the early 1900s, the new water treatment works at Brede were opened with large steam driven pumps and a pipeline six miles long to take the water to Hastings. The works were housed in an engine room and boiler house with a tall chimney and various other buildings.
Steam giants phase 2
Despite being a massive project for its time, as early as 1917 it became clear that Brede could not meet the requisite water demand and in due course, the Brede water supply was supplemented with water from nearby Powdermill stream. But still not supplying enough water, between 1935 and 1951, work started on another water resource, namely Darwell Reservoir.
By the 1950s, Brede’s daily output was five million gallons of water a day (back in the early 1890s, it had been dealing with less than a million gallons a day) and that meant more engines were needed. But by 1964, the decision had been made to switch to electric pumps and by the 1970s, steam was no more and the giants went to sleep.
Awake the giants
Having been neglected for nearly two decades, in the 1990s, Southern Water were considering a possible restoration and public exhibition of the pumps and by 1994, the Brede Steam Engine Society had been formed with the aim of restoring and reoperating the “sleeping giants”. The boiler house and both engine houses are now Grade II listed buildings of Special Architectural Interest. The brick engine houses are in distinctive Baroque and Art Deco styles.
Two Tangye engines with their ram pumps and well pumps were originally installed in 1904, with a third pump by Worthington Simpson as part of the Darwell Reservoir Project being added in the 1940s. Sadly one of the original Tangye pumps was broken up in 1969 but the two other examples remain largely intact.
These days there are also other examples of water pumping engines which have been saved and brought to Brede for restoration and display, and various other artefacts including a wide range of recording instruments.
A visit
The volunteers here are extremely knowledgeable (a number of them at least being engineers) and are more than happy to spend a little time explaining the machinery to you and how it all works. For budding engineers, this is an absolute gold mine and a chance to see steam pump engineering at work on the grandest scale. This was Victorian /Edwardian engineering at its best.
The engines and equipment having been lovingly restored and you don’t have to be an engineer to appreciate the majesty and wonder of this equipment. You arrive to the gentle whirr, whosh, clack and click of the different engines, gleaming in their restored livery in the two large rooms. The rooms are almost hypnotic with their moving parts and even the cellars have an elegant Edwardian charm with their vaulted and tiled ceilings.
Take a little time to learn about the extraordinary backstory of how the Brede site came about (it’s quite a tale) and the incredible overspend on the initial project.
World War Bunker
To the side of the engine rooms, is the Brede Waterworks Nuclear Bunker. This was built by Southern Water in the late 1980s to be used as an emergency control centre during a nuclear attack. It was never completed or operational as with the end of the Cold War in 1992, work stopped. There is a newspaper clipping on the wall in the bunker from 1993 about the opening of the bunker, which must have seemed bizarre even back then.
The idea behind it had been that in the event of a nuclear attack, 20 staff would shelter in the bunker to ensure the water supply remained uncontaminated. Today you can go in the bunker via the contamination room, passing the HAZMAT suits and blast door. Once inside, you can visit the dormitories (which are pretty small) and kitchen, see the emergency escape hatch and communication room and have a look around the facilities.
I visited with curiosity but no expectation but I left thoroughly impressed. You cannot help but be a little in awe of both the original engineering as well as the dedication of the volunteers, and if you’re in this part of the world, it’s well worth a little deviation.
Opening days
Brede Steam Giants is open on the first Saturday of every month and on every Bank Holiday Monday, from 10 am to 4 pm. There is free parking and a little café on site. They are entirely financed by donations.
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