Pumping Station on the site of Ely Mill

It is believed that there was a corn mill in Ely since at least the 12th century.  Located on the banks of the River Ely alongside the footpath known as Birdies Lane, it was served by a weir slightly further up-river.  The censuses of 1851 and 1861 both list Griffith David as the miller; by 1871, the role had been taken over by his son, John David.  However, in March 1875, the David family sought compensation at Glamorgan Assizes for damage from excavations carried out by the Cardiff Water Works Company.  And when David Jones of Wallington sketched the building in 1888, he commented that it was ‘unoccupied and going to ruin’.

In about 1850, the Water Works Company had developed a pumping station adjacent to the mill.  It drew water from the river to supply the growing town of Cardiff, via a holding reservoir at Penhill.  Mary Traynor’s drawing depicts one of the buildings associated with this operation – one source describes it as a coal store with living accommodation above for the station superintendent and his family.

By the early-20th century, Cardiff was served by large reservoirs in the Brecon Beacons, and Ely had become a reserve source.  The pumping station appears to have ceased supplementing Cardiff’s water supply during the 1920s.  A private facility on the same site now supplies water to Aberthaw Power Station.

David Webb, Glamorgan Archives Volunteer

Sources consulted:

• Mary Traynor Collection [D1093/2/40]
• 1851 – 1871 censuses
• Western Mail, 5 March 1875
• Matthews, John Hobson (ed), Records of the County Borough of Cardiff, Vol V, pp.457-469
• Billingham, Nigel and Jones, Stephen K., Ely, Caerau and Michaelston-super-Ely (Archive Photographs series)
• History and Archaeology of the Ely Trail (online at formerly.cardiff.gov.uk/objview.asp?object_id=13861)
• http://www.cardiffians.co.uk/suburbs/ely.shtml
• http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/404687
• http://www.whitchurchandllandaff.co.uk/sunnybanks.htm