Keld Heads engine house is at SE 079909 and is an enormous building, now
roofless. As far as I can make out it was built about the 1870's and was
certainly disused by 1888 when a mining engineer from the Consett Iron Co.
went to look at the engine with the aim of buying it for movement to Langley
Park Colliery. His company didn't buy it and I assume it was subsequently
scrapped.
The Keld Head mines were drained by the Ashbank Level and to work levels
below this a shaft 490 feet deep was sunk at the grid. ref. quoted near the
main adit entrance. A surface waterwheel operated pumps in this shaft
lifting the water to the Ashbank Level. The railway had opened to nearby
Leyburn in 1855 but was extended past the mine site in 1877 which could be
the date when the engine was built because of the ready supply of coal which
the railway could deliver. While the waterwheel was on the west side of the
shaft, the new engine was built on the east side.
The engine was horizontal, probably single cylinder, and had a flywheel at
the eastern end, where the cut out for the crank can be seen. Connection to
the quadrants at the top of the shaft was by a rod running in its own tunnel
beneath the road past the end of the house.
The whole site is now scheduled as an ancient monument and there have been
moves to get conservation started on the engine house, its nearby chimney
and the water wheel pit, but the pace is akin to the speed of a stunned
slug. The whole complex of adit entrance buildings, peat store, smelt house
and flues is very extensive and dreadfully neglected; Clough only recorded
part of it.
Yes the engine house is large and the resources put into installing it at
such a late date show remarkable optimism. For comparison, the Calcutta
engine was installed in 1877 for pumping out collieries and was probably
similar in design and size, until it was scrapped about 1950. The engine
house still remains (Listed) and is also absolutely enormous (SK 421169).
Simon.
----- Original Message -----
From: "BARRY JONES" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2006 8:08 PM
Subject: Keld Heads Engine House
Hi All,
Can anyone help my with information about the Keld Heads Engine House in
Wensleydale i.e. construction date?. I known it had links with the mine, but
the scale of it seems to be large for this purpose only. Was it used at a
later date after the mine closed?. Cannot see any links to the Smelt Mill,
or Stokoe Condensers just above it. I know R.T Clough did survey the area,
about the mine, stokoe condensers and the flues running up to Cobscar.
Regards
Barry
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