Generator in Wiggenhall St Germans named after six-year-old Alfie Fletcher

It was an exciting moment for six-year-old power generator enthusiast Alfie Fletcher when he found out one was being named after him.

An open day at the Middle Level Commissioners Pumping Station in St Germans saw a number of interested people look around the site.

Alfie, with his parents, was one of those visitors, and became so interested that he was invited back during the half-term to name one of the six diesel-powered generators.

Alfie’s mum, Claire, said: “Alfie has been so excited to revisit the site and to see his name on a plaque on the wall of the generator room.

“Every time it rains Alfie asks me if his generator will be working to keep the Middle Level area dry.”

Operations engineer, Jon Fenn, welcomed Alfie and his family to the pumping station to unveil the name plaque.

Chief engineer, Nicola Oldfield, said: “We were very impressed with Alfie’s enthusiasm and he asked lots of questions about how the pumping station works.

“It was a pleasure to show him around this important piece of drainage infrastructure. He is a future engineer in the making.”

St Germans Pumping Station is the largest land drainage pumping station in the UK.

During the recent Storm Babet 60mm of rain fell across the catchment. Pumping started ahead of the storm arriving to create a ‘hole’ for the additional water.

Over six days approximately 11,000 megalitres of water were pumped through St Germans. This is equivalent to 4,400 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Middle Level Commissioners own and operate two major land drainage pumping stations. These work in combination with circa 300km of raised embankments and 190km of waterways to keep approximately 8,000 nearby homes and 1,200 commercial properties and over 56,000 hectares of the most productive agricultural land in the country dry.