Breda is a village in East Sussex, 13 km north of Hastings and 6 km west of Rye where, in the late 1890s
Hastings Corporation established a pumping station to extract water from underground sources. It is now a place for education about water. Originally there were two 410 hp triple expansion pumping engines supplied by Tangye of Birmingham in 1904, which were accommodated in a Baroque style engine house. One has been scrapped but the other remains as part of the centre. In 1940-41 the pumping station was supplied with a third engine, the last steam engine built by Worthington Simpson of Newark, and, indeed, one of the last to be built in the United Kingdom. This 420 hp, triple expansion horizontal engine house remains in its Art Deco engine house. The centre also displays artefacts from water supply installations at Dover and Folkestone. The pumping station was originally supplied with coal by a narrow gauge steam tramway from a wharf on the River Breda but river traffic ceased and the tramway closed in 1929. The site includes an underground bunker excavated during the Second World War.
Brede Steam Giants
Waterworks Lane
Brede
TN31 6HG Rye
East Sussex
United Kingdom
+44 (0) 1323 - 897310