A wide blade, high solidity ratio, axial flow hydrofoil impeller has been developed particularly for gas dispersion when used in the upward-pumping mode. It has a low power number so that a relatively low torque is required when using it with a large impeller to tank diameter ratio, a commonly desired aim of retrofitting. As part of the work characterising these impellers, laser Doppler anemometry has been used to study the single phase flow both down- and up-pumping, the latter for the first time. Mean and root-mean-square velocities were measured throughout a fully baffled, flat bottomed cylindrical tank. When down-pumping, the discharge flow was almost axial but when up-pumping, it had a strong radial component. Turbulence energy dissipation rates in the impeller region and the discharge stream when up-pumping were found to be higher than those when down-pumping. In both modes, the impeller was found to have a high circulation efficiency. In Part II, the data presented here are used for obtaining computational fluid dynamic solutions of the flow field.