Drainage

The Soss drainage station at Misterton stands adjacent to the River Idle. The land on the south side belonging to the townships of Misterton, Everton, Scaftworth, Gringley-on-the-Hill, and Walkeringham was drained and cultivated under acts of parliament passed in 1796, 1801, and 1813. By the late 1820s the land had sunk by at least 18 inches and it became necessary to erect a forty horsepower steam beam engine to pumping the water out of the main drain into the river Idle. The engine with scoop wheel in the building on the right, was completed on 1829 at a cost in excess of £5,000. A second engine, on the left, was erected in 1839. This was supplied by Booth & Co of Park Ironworks, Sheffield, and drove a second scoop wheel which was positioned outside the enginehouse. In 1896 the original engine was replaced by a horizontal tandem compound by Gwynne & Co of Hammersmith, driving centrifugal pumps at about a quarter of the coal cost of the adjacent beam engine for an equivalent amount of water raised.

Today the engines are long gone but the enginehouses are listed Grade II* and have been converted into a unique house with the two sides linked across the drain by a glazed corridor.