The contraption is clearly a gearbox, and underneath there's an operating rod disappearing underground. It shows a very great similarity to the type of gearbox used at the top of farm windpumps, and scouring the internet we found the following diagram at the Ironman Windmill Company's website - "How Water Pumping Windmills Work".

The obvious difference, though, is that instead of a shaft driven by a windwheel, this gearbox employs a flywheel. The flywheel doesn't have a handle, nor does it have any evidence of ever having had one, therefore the conclusion is that it was probably driven by a belt from an engine. It is also likely that there was originally a cover on top of the gearbox, which would have contained an oil bath. The delivery pipe extends above ground for some distance past the air vessel and then it apparently leads back underground, and we're guessing that perhaps it led to a storage tank somewhere. So was the pump powered up from time to time, in order to top up the storage tank? And the old maps show "Allotment Gardens" nearby - could it be related to these?

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