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Latitude: 51.7145 / 51°42'52"N
Longitude: -3.7593 / 3°45'33"W
OS Eastings: 278550
OS Northings: 203213
OS Grid: SN785032
Mapcode National: GBR H4.354C
Mapcode Global: VH5GG.S5GJ
Plus Code: 9C3RP67R+Q7
Entry Name: Cefn Coed Colliery Engine House Range and Steam Capstan Engine
Listing Date: 4 February 1991
Last Amended: 14 July 2004
Grade: II*
Source: Cadw
Source ID: 11863
Building Class: Industrial
ID on this website: 300011863
Location: At Cefn Coed Colliery Museum in the Dulais Valley, on the A4109 2 miles N of Aberdulais. The engine house range of 3 gabled buildings adjacent to the main road. The steam capstan engine situated imme
County: Neath Port Talbot
Town: Neath
Community: Crynant (Y Creunant)
Community: Crynant
Traditional County: Glamorgan
Tagged with: Building
Cefn Coed Colliery was sunk in 1926-7 at that time being the deepest anthracite mine in the world with two
shafts over 732m deep. The colliery began production of high-quality anthracite in 1930, employed over 900
men in 1945 and closed in 1968. The site remained in use in association with the Blaenant Drift Mine in the
valley floor to the south, which was driven in the 1960s and closed in 1990. The Cefn Coed Colliery Museum was established in 1978 and has within its area at the side of the site several important monuments including the colliery's chimney, its original steam boilerhouse and two headframes. The engine house range includes the compressor house, the electrical generating house and the winding house of No 2 shaft with the original steam winding engines. The associated steam capstan engine, said to be the only surviving example made in Wales, was used for the original construction of the shaft and was maintained for emergency use.
The range contains three buildings in a contiguous group: the compressor house at N end, the winding engine house in the centre, and the electrical house at the S. Each building has a gabled slate roof on an E-W axis and is of red brick. All have metal multi-pane windows with arched heads formed by concrete lintels. The windows are set into tall recessed panels with flat heads of stepped brickwork. The gables are punctured by circular openings.The compressor house is the first and smallest of the buildings.
The winding engine house is the middle of the range. W gable, facing the No 2 headframe, has three openings: two 6x8 pane metal framed windows and one now bricked up which rose the full height of the gable to an arched top and was open to take the winding cables to the headframe. E gable has a pair of similar glazed windows and a central arched double doorway with glazed panelled doors and a circular window in the gable level. The S most building, the electrical house, is the largest and is slightly later, having the blocked-up windows of the winding engine house in its N wall, but conforming with the others in architectural detailing. Four bays long with windows blocked to the S in late C20. Windows in the gable ends have been blocked at the W, but are still open at a high level. A single-storey extension at the E end was formerly open but is now blocked off as it has been declared unsafe. The associated steam capstan engine, of horizontal single cylinder capstan type (and made by Llewellyn and Cubitt of Ton Pentre, Rhondda, in the 1920s), is situated immediately beyond the W gable of the winding engine house
The compressor house originally contained 2 compressors, supplying compressed air to power tools underground. One survives, a Bellis and Morcom compressor made in 1946. The E end of the building houses an exhibition area.
The winding engine house contains a large horizontal twin cylinder winding engine built in 1927 by the Worsley Mesnes Ironworks of Wigan, one of the leading makers of winding engines. The cylinders are disposed either side of the winding drum and have a bore of over 80cm and a stroke of over 1.5m. The drum is some 3m wide and nearly 5m in diameter. The engine house is floored with brick paviors in herring bone patterns. The electrical building housed electricity generating equipment, the beds of which can be seen, but the interior has been cleared . A 2.4m high gallery survives along the S wall, supported by iron columns
This range is listed at grade II* for its exceptional completeness as a group of central colliery buildings of the 1920s, and especially for the rare survival in place of a compressor and two original winding engines; of these the steam capstan engine is a rare example of its type and may be the only survivor made in Wales.
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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