Work is underway to replace the ageing electric pumping station that sits alongside Horsey Windpump. This is part of a wider programme of work by the Broads Internal Drainage Board to replace eleven pumping stations within the River Thurne catchment.
Without the surrounding pumping stations and drainage network, 6,300 hectares of lowlands would be subject to permanent flooding, causing the loss of important designated habitat, arable land, and woodland as well as impacting homes, local communities, tourism and infrastructure.
The existing pumping stations were mostly built in the 1950's to replace historic wind pumps. These replacement stations were typically steam or diesel driven that were later upgraded to electrical pumps - often within the same foundations / building.
Whilst ongoing repairs have sustained their operation for 70 years, the pumping stations are now significantly beyond the end of their design lives and require replacement.
The advanced new pumping station and control building (housing remote systems for improved control of levels, data analysis, and fault finding) is the latest evolution of drainage engineering at Horsey over a 213 year period.
The replacement pumping station will be constructed from steel sheet piles driven into the local crag (the hard geological layer beneath the softer peat / clay deposits). These form a wet well housing the new Pentair suspended bowl fish friendlier pumps and secondary non-return valves. The intake of the wet well will be fitted with trash screens to protect the pumps from debris.
The new pumping station will discharge through the existing flood bank via new below ground pipework with precast concrete outfall structures featuring lightweight flap valves to prevent reverse flow from the river.
The new pump will operate over a greater range of flows, with increased efficiency, maintaining stable water levels within the catchments and offering resilience to climate change through increased pump capacity.
The work to replace the pumping station at Horsey began in Spring 2025 and will continue until early 2026 when the new pumping station is expected to begin operating.
We are working closely with the contractor to keep any changes to our normal opening times to a minimum, although there may be some days when the windpump will be closed during piling works. Please refer to the opening times on our homepage for the latest.
Working with the Broads Internal Drainage Board, we will be sharing information with visitors about the new pumping station and its construction.
This project provides an exciting opportunity for us to learn more about flood prevention on the Norfolk Broads, to connect the present and the past, and to understand more about the ongoing challenges of climate change and flood prevention.
The location of the pumping station alongside Horsey Windpump means that visitors will be able to see the new pumping station taking shape as construction progresses.
When the prevailing wind direction and position of the cap allows, visitors will be able to get a birds-eye-view of the new construction from the balcony of the windpump.
Later this year visitors will be able to view Horsey Windpump from a completely new vantage point in the centre of the staithe, as a temporary foot crossing will be installed during construction work.
27 March 2026
Following completion of the site fencing and landscaping, the footpath crossing the staithe in front of the windpump has been reopened and the temporary footbridge has been removed. The next phase over the coming weeks will see completion of the electrical installation work, followed by testing and commissioning of the pumping station.
