History

Engine house of Cornish type for a steam-powered pumping engine for the Penrhyndu lead mine. The tower may have been built in the late C18 for a Newcomen type engine and altered in the early to mid C19 to take a Boulton & Watt type beam engine. There is no visible chimney, but this would probably have been detached and it is suggested that Tower Cottage may have been a separate boiler house. Lead mining at Penrhyndu may go back to Roman times, there were workings owned by Cymer Abbey in the Middle Ages. Mining is mentioned in 1668 and 1734, Messrs Roe of Macclesfield were working the mine from the 1760s to the early C19. In 1785 John Cartwright and three others erected an engine to drain the mine, but Edward Hyde Hall in 1809-11 found all mining ceased. In 1828 Messrs Williams of Gwennap, Cornwall took over, running the mine to 1839. There was a successful find in 1869, and the mine operated until 1892. In the C19 owned by the Assheton-Smith family of Vaynol.

Exterior

Cornish engine-house, rubble stone, roofless. Tall square tower with gabled rear, flat-topped side walls and front large square upper opening for balance-beam. Doorway in front with timber lintel, left side has window to ground floor right and first floor centre, right side has door to left. Rear has blocked ground floor opening and windows first floor and loft. Side walls are stepped in at first floor.

Interior

Roofless and floorless, holes for floor beams visible, walls stepped out at first floor sides. There are indications of alterations.

Reasons for Listing

One of the very few mine engine houses of the Cornish type built in Wales.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29496987

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas