Monument record 0581806000 - Willow Spring, off Eythrope Road

'Pumping Station (County Lunatic Asylum)' buildings and ponds shown on the 1880 1st edition, the 1899 2nd edition, and 1921/1925 revised edition 25-inch OS maps. The ponds were covered by buildings after 1880 as the pumping station increased its capacity. A rectangular water tower is shown to the S, fronting Eythrope Road on the 1921 revised edition 25-inch OS map. The pumping station buildings seem to have been demolished by the late 1940s. 1950 RAF AP shows most of the pumping station site had been cleared, with a couple of partly demolished buildings still in place; 1966 AP appears to show the footings of the demolished buildings, with the site reverting to scrub (B5).
Fresh water supplies for the asylum were initially provided by two deep wells and rainwater tanks within the asylum grounds, but these soon proved inadequate. Land at Willow Spring on the northeast side of Eythrope Road was offered by Dr Lee and bought in October 1856, with construction of the pumping station commencing in Spring 1857. The total cost of the land, construction of a horse engine pump and the laying of water pipes to the asylum was about £2,000 (B13).