Description

Harvey and Company of Hoyle, Cornwall, erected 1874. 3-storey beam engine pump house and pump. Rusticated sandstone ashlar N elevation; stugged, squared and snecked sandstone to remainder. Rusticated sandstone ashlar base course; eaves course. Cast-iron beam, Oregon pine pump rod.

S (ENTRANCE) GABLE: wooden steps with finialed balusters to round-arched opening with keystone detailing, incorporating brick infill forming tripartite doorway, with round-arched openings, comprising central 2-leaf diagonally-boarded timber door, flanked by 3-pane windows. Tooled tablet centred above door, reading '1874' flanked by the initials 'ML'. 3 windows evenly arranged and centred at 1st and 2nd floors.

W ELEVATION: 2-leaf diagonally-boarded timber door to left at ground; pairs of windows centred at 1st and 2nd floors.

N GABLE: 2-leaf, diagonally-boarded timber door with radial semicircular fanlight, centred at ground. Wall-mounted metal brackets to outer left and right at ground. Giant central beam projecting at 3rd floor from deep rectangular opening in vertically-boarded timber frontage at apex, with timber doors flanking opening, 8-pane window to right of opening.

E ELEVATION: 2 pairs of windows flanking centre at ground; pairs of windows centred at 1st and 2nd floors. Brick infilled window to left between 1st and 2nd floors. Wall-mounted metal bracket to outer left at ground, and to left of centre at 1st floor.

INTERIOR: not seen, 2000. Includes steam end of beam; steam cylinder and cut-off valves; timber staircase with turned balusters.

10-pane fixed timber windows, covered by bipartite grills. Grey slate roof; metal ridge. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

Statement of Interest

A Group with Prestongrange Colliery, Hoffman Kiln, and Prestongrange Colliery, Old Generating House (see separate listings). Monks from Newbattle Abbey originally mined for coal here as far back as the twelfth century. This was the start of the area's connection with coalmining, and the first shaft of Prestongrange's last mine was sunk in 1830. The beam engine was built by Harvey and Company of Hoyle in Cornwall, and was shipped to Scotland and erected in 1874. It pumped water out of the pit, in three stages, at 2955 litres a minute. The mine was eventually closed in 1963, and after abandonment and partial clearing it was saved and became part of the Scottish Mining Museum. The only other beam engine surviving in Scotland is the Devon Colliery Beam Engine House, Clackmannan (Neilson & Co., Glasgow, 1865).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17570028

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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