The Lichfield Waterworks Trust, a registered charity set up to save Lichfield’s Historic Waterworks at Sandfields, is now one step closer to achieving its plan to bring the redundant Grade II* building back into reuse as a community facility.

The trust has been working jointly with the owners, Persimmon Homes Ltd, Lichfield District Council and the City Council and have now agreed the terms of a licence to enter the building to conduct a feasibility study. The study will enable the trust to find a sustainable long term solution that will preserve the Victorian Waterworks for the benefit of the community in perpetuity.

Following a short ceremony presided over by the Lord Mayor of Lichfield, Sheelagh James Paul Foster of Persimmon Homes Ltd handed the keys to David Moore, chairman of the Lichfield Waterworks Trust. David Moore said that this is one small step for the Lichfield Waterworks trust, and one giant leap for the people of Lichfield.

David then spoke about how in 1854 the city of Lichfield in an act of unselfish generosity completely remodelled itself to become a living waterworks. Both lakes were substantially enlarged, the museum gardens created and a mile-long tunnel built to convey the water to the pumping station at Sandfields, so it could save the people in the Black Country from the dreaded cholera epidemics that had wiped out thousands of lives.

Sandfields Pumping Station is one of the region’s most exciting pieces of industrial heritage that played a significant part in the development of the industrial revolution. 

The trust welcomes new members who have an interest in heritage or social history and who wish to support the community. If you would like to be a part of this exciting project, please join us here.