Background
The Museum was founded in 1974 in the Victorian water pumping station which served Hereford for 120 years.  It was the foresight of the first chairman of the Herefordshire Water Board, Stephen Southall, which brought about the establishment of the Museum.  However, it was not until the privatisation of water undertakings in the UK in the early 1970s that his vision could be turned into reality.  Due to the shape of the catchment area of the River Wye, Herefordshire came under the auspices of Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water.  The company was immediately supportive and the Museum was established as a separate charitable trust with Stephen Southall as first chairman.

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History Since its opening the Museum has enriched its collection not only with relevant engines and machinery to tell a coherent story, but a whole building has been moved which the Museum rescued from demolition. This was the historic water pumping station at Leominster which saved that town from an epidemic of typhoid fever in 1865. The history of water supplies in the county is depicted in high quality wall displays. These recall progress from the first cave-dwellers at Symonds Yat to the latest water-pumping and filtration systems at Hereford. The engineering history which lies behind the main engines and machinery on site is explored through back-lit wall displays. Information about key historic figures is given and the water history of three specific towns is highlighted. The Museum has an archive of written materials relating to the development of water supplies in Herefordshire and adjacent areas which is available for study. It is a treasure-trove of industrial heritage.

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Organisation
The Waterworks Museum - Hereford is the operating name for Herefordshire Waterworks Museum Ltd, an Accredited Museum, a company limited by guarantee and registered as a charity.
The Council of Management comprises the directors of the company, the Company Secretary, and other trustees elected at annual general meetings.  The Museum has no paid employees.  One Trustee is a nominated senior representative of Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water.
The Council meets formally four times each year and holds an Annual General Meeting in early December.  The designated officers of the Museum (Chairman, Vice-chairman, Treasurer and Company Secretary) are chosen by the Trustees at the ordinary meeting following the AGM. The Museum has an Honorary President chosen or reconfirmed at the AGM.  The Trustees are served by the Museum Administrator, an honorary post.

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Funding
Funding falls under two main categories: capital funding for projects and revenue support for day-to-day expenditure.  The Museum always has one or more specific projects under way which cover a wide range from the rescue and restoration of engines, pumps or other relevant machinery, to major and minor building projects.  Making the collection more accessible to visitors in every sense is very important and new display projects are continuously planned and carried out.  Such projects require capital funding and the Museum approaches various funding organisations with appropriate proposals.
Admission charges are a valuable source of revenue funding but do not cover the ongoing day-to-day expenditure of the Museum.  Such funding is much more difficult to attract from funding organisations and the Museum is especially grateful to two such bodies which help to sustain the ongoing and increasing costs of running this active, working and dynamic museum.  In addition the annual fees paid by Members of the Museum, especially where they are given under Gift Aid, add considerably, and most valuably, to the funds available to the Museum for revenue expenditure.

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Aims & Objectives

To tell the historic and coherent story of the provision of potable water and water supplies from earliest habitation to the close of the 20th Century. To maintain the highest standards as an industrial-archaeology preservation society in the rescue and restoration of artefacts relevant to the Museum’s collection policy. To project the Museum as a valuable educational resource to local and regional schools, further education and higher education establishments, and for the purposes of lifelong learning. To make the Museum attractive and accessible, physically and intellectually, to all groups in society. To present the Museum’s exhibits and artefacts to national standards in order to maintain accreditation and to satisfy the needs of all users and visitors. To become an acclaimed national centre of industrial heritage.

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Key People (Management & Trustees)

President of the Museum     Chairman                           Vice-chairman & Chief Engineer Treasurer                                 Visitor Services Manager           Collections Manager                Company Secretary                     Administrator

Stephen Southall  Noel Meeke Peter Heaton Newton Tucker Pat Heaton Sue Hubbard Les Birch Joan Hughes

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Engines	Pumps
Campbell hot-tube gas engine (1890s)	Glenfield & Kennedy open-crank single-cylinder double-acting water pump (1905)
Hayward-Tyler Rider-type hot air engines (1890s) (1)  1hp (2) ½hp	Joseph Evans 2-cylinder double-acting water pump (1920s)
Bamford petrol engine (1930s)	Centrifugal pumps (1955) (1)  3-stage   (2)  4-stage
Pelapone-Ricardo diesel engine (1955)	Hayward-Tyler pump driven by 1hp hot-air engine

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Buldings & developments
In 2006 the superb new building comprising Easthall and Southall was added to the Museum.  Easthall provides excellent visitor facilities and an education centre, whilst Southall provides a spacious engine gallery and a dedicated workshop for the Museum’s volunteer engineers.  The main building, the original Victorian water pumping station for Hereford, was also refurbished as part of the scheme.  Funding for this major project came from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, English Heritage and the Southall Trust.

The Rotherwas Engine House was completed in 2007.  It has been designed to shelter the Blackstone EPV5 5-cylinder diesel engine and pumps which provided the fire-fighting capability at the Royal Ordnance Munitions Factory at Rotherwas, on the outskirts of Hereford.  Originally installed in 1939, the engine and all its ancillaries have been transferred to the Museum where they form the centerpiece of an exhibition devoted to Hereford’s rôle in WW2.  The Blackstone engine has been restored to working order and the Mather & Platt two-stage centrifugal split-case pump has been opened for visitors to see the impellors.  Funding for this second major project came from the Heritage Lottery Fund (Your Heritage strand) and the Southall Trust.

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Volunteers & Members
It is the membership which gives the Museum its solid base in the wider community.  For each member the subscription provides free access to the Museum on all public open days, mailed copies of the award-winning newsletter WaterWords, the opportunity to have a say in the running of the Museum at the AGM, a winter social event and a summer gala day.
Many members also give their time, effort and expertise to the Museum as volunteers.  Indeed everyone who works at the Museum is a volunteer and more are always needed.

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Community
Herefordshire, whilst a sparsely populated county, is a lively and vibrant community with Hereford City at its centre.  It is also a border county and like all borderlands has a certain element of mystery.  It is part of the English Marches where Norman barons fiercely guarded their lands, based in numerous castles, many of which can still be seen.  Hereford City abounds with history having received many Royal Charters and seen gory battles from the Roman period to the Civil War.  The River Wye has always played a major rôle in the city’s fortunes and indeed the name Hereford means the crossing point for armies.  Like many towns in the mid-Victorian period its citizens succumbed to water-borne diseases and in 1854 the Hereford Improvement Act was passed to enable the City Fathers to provide paved streets, gas lighting and a piped supply of potable (drinking) water.  Because Herefordshire has no lakes, or the right geography for reservoirs, and no significant underground aquifers, the River Wye was seen as the only effective source for large quantities of drinking water.  The Victorian engineers lost no time in selecting a site some 1km west, and upstream, of the city centre where the pumping station (now the Museum main building) could be constructed above the flood plain and with Broomy Hill behind for the treatment works and supply reservoir.  This enabled them to supply the original centre of Hereford, known as Hightown, with water by gravity.

The county is now also the source of many of the Museum’s volunteers.  Most are people who have retired to the county because it is such a beautiful place to live.  However, some volunteers live further afield, including the Welsh border counties.  The Museum has a warm place in the hearts of many people in the local community and you will hear it talked about in positive terms wherever people meet.  It remains the only working museum in Herefordshire.

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Tourism
Hereford is in the midst of the wonderful Wye Valley, an area of rare natural beauty.  The Museum is situated just to the west of the city centre close by the river.  It can be reached by taking the Riverside Walk, part of the nationally acclaimed Wye Valley Walk.  The river plays a part in many aspects of Herefordshire’s life, providing leisure activities such as angling, rowing and canoeing and the life sustaining water supply for the population.  In days gone by the river was also a transport artery.

The Museum is within easy reach of the Midlands, Cotswolds, mid and south Wales.  By road follow the brown tourist signs from the main Wye Bridge on A49.  On foot follow the paths along the banks of the river.  Hereford train and bus stations are some 1.5km from the Museum.

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