The bleak looking building known at Twyford as the Rectifier House stands on the wrong side of Bridleway 20. It used to house the transformer and mercury arc rectifier which provided D. C. power for the W. H. Allen pumps installed in the main building by Southampton Corporation, in the late 1940s.
It also provided a home for the pumps which delivered water to the village of Owslebury. One of these pumps had electric drive, the other was driven by the Pelapone engine which is still in position in the building.
There is a five stage a centrifugal pump which could supply the high head needed to reach Owslebury and it has recently been overhauled by the Warsash cadets, in conjunction with Bob Ansell and Kevin Rumary. It is now ready for reinstallation and it is hoped to put it to work as part of a pumping demonstration
From the pumps in the Rectifier House, the water for Owslebury was delivered into a 4 inch water main laid along Bridleway 20 which skirts the western perimeter of the works and then swings eastward to emerge into Mare Lane.
At the junction with Mare Lane a bulk supply meter was installed and from this point onwards the main and the water it carried was the responsibility of Winchester R. D. C. until 1974 when both the R. D.C and Southampton Corporation handed over their water supply functions to Southern Water.
Opinions vary as to the date when water from Twyford was first supplied to Owslebury. Chatting with Waterworks staff, who have been concerned with the supply in recent years, I have encountered two views. One view suggests that the main in Bridleway 20 was laid in 1937 or 38.
The other suggests that it was laid after the 1939 - 45 war.
I understand that before the supply was brought in from Twyford, Owslebury had a supply of its own, pumped by a wind driven pumping unit in the village.
Readers may perhaps have personal memories of the old wind driven supply and may also have taken note of the laying of the main in Bridleway 20 as far as Mare Lane and then on to the village. |