Its purpose was to supply water to towns in the Black Country, an industrial area where local wells were often polluted, and where there had been cholera epidemics in 1832 and 1849.

[1][2] The original engine house, designed by the architect Edward Adams, was opened in 1858 by William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley.

It housed two, later three, single-engined rotative beam engines supplied by the Soho Foundry of James Watt and Co.

[1] The Cornish beam engine within the 1870s building has a cylinder of diameter 65 inches (165 cm) and a stroke of 9 feet (2.7 m).

It rises to the full height of the building, with the bearing for the beam supported by a Tuscan arcade of three arches.