Does anyone know what this building might be?
It is at the top of a shaft for a coal drift, adit entrance now 'treated' in the Durham tradition of bulldozing everything to do with coal mining. The drift worked the Durham Main coal in the first 2 decades of the 20th century.
I am wondering what the 'window' was for and the concrete base with bolts on the inside.
[https://www.aditnow.co.uk/Photo/Mill-Drift-Shaft-Top-Building_113871/]
[/https://www.aditnow.co.uk/SuperSize/Shaft-Top-Building-Mill-Drift_113870/]

I would assume some kind of winding machine was bolted to that concrete slab.
I would do a dig there, record everything you find, clean down to floor level.

I would assume some kind of winding machine was bolted to that concrete slab.
I would do a dig there, record everything you find, clean down to floor level.

There you are Colin you've been telt:)

Additionally there must have been something outside the "window" given the parallel smear lines on the wall and is that bit of concrete(?)in the wall below the window an extension of the concrete pad inside the building, if so it's possible the building may be later than the pad?

Anything useful on NLS old OS mapping?

Jim

Do you have a FlashEarth or NGR position for the building.

The bit under the window looks like a fairly standard window cill.

Do you have a FlashEarth or NGR position for the building.

The bit under the window looks like a fairly standard window cill.

I was looking at the external bit two courses below and slightly to the right the current "window" which seems to coincide with the position and relative height of the concrete pad inside the building.

Jim

Ahh, I was looking at the wrong window!

Their appears to be a grill under it.
would concrete roof be original ?

An image search for old mine buildings in Durham turned up a similar roof, perhaps a Durham standard thing.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2167026 

It whispers 'winder' to me; look for rub-marks and grease deposits on the in-situ wooden framing. The paint or bitumen marks on external wall suggest that there was a weather shutter on it at some time, or maybe even a wooden rope tunnel.

MARK

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Drift mine building Guisborough
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/354932 

would concrete roof be original ?

There is an extant small early C20 power house at a south Wales mid size drift mine with a similar thin concrete roof; this building was adjacent to an airshaft, down which cables went to power coal cutters which were introduced at this mine c.1910.

There's a lot of mines in Durham with "Mill Drift" in the title!;D

Theirs a few round 'Ousten'

The only mine listed in the AN database using the search terms 'mill & drift' is this one.

https://www.aditnow.co.uk/Mines/Low-Mill-Drift-Coal-Mine_18412/ 

It whispers 'winder' to me; look for rub-marks and grease deposits on the in-situ wooden framing. The paint or bitumen marks on external wall suggest that there was a weather shutter on it at some time, or maybe even a wooden rope tunnel.

MARK

Agree, best guess so far.

If it is a winding house, you would expect adit to be opposite cable hole, similar to this one.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?biw=1356&bih=635&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=rLRTWpT0CoqPgAbh_KHoBg&q=drift+mine+buildings&oq=drift+mine+buildings&gs_l=psy-ab.3...601023.622688.0.624002.39.28.4.1.1.0.151.1765.25j1.27.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..10.21.1157.0..0j0i8i30k1j0i24k1j0i10k1j0i13k1j0i67k1j0i5i30k1j0i30k1.44.KCpI3OavE8c#imgrc=BgNWiU-AZol4gM :

Thanks for everyone's thoughts, I have a number of things to look for on a return visit. It was New Year's eve afternoon, with not a lot of light, One would need to be careful in getting any closer, it would involve climbing over the Coal Authorities fence, which I shall not be doing; the shaft is collapsing as can be seen under the building.
My initial thoughts were about a winder, but the coal would have gone straight out of the adit to a mineral railway. There is a scatter of small coals at the edge of the shaft, I wondered about a shaft top furnace to draw air through the pit, I believe that they were still in use at that time. If it was a generator house to supply electricity to the pit, would they have used steam to power a generator?
Any other thoughts will be welcome, I will have to try and get back there on a sunny afternoon and see if there is any more to see.

With plain good quality bricks and a concrete roof the building looks early twentieth century. The small concrete plinth suggests a mounting for a small electric motor perhaps driving a small endless rope haulage.
Alternatively there could have been a belt drive from outside through the opening to a small vertical air compressor on the plinth.
You can discount a furnace ventilation with this building; if it had been for steam driven equipment then there should be signs of a boiler, which looks unlikely.

The building illustrated on Geograph near Guisborough dates from about 1910 and housed electrical gear; there were wooden poles to the right of it at the end of an overhead transmission line feeding current into the building from where it was fed via a landline into the adjoining drift of the Belmont ironstone mine. What is an interesting and historic feature to us is viewed by police and locals as a drugs den and so far has survived talk of demolition.

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My money would be on ventilation fan mounted at shaft top. Too small, wrong position, etc to be shaft winder.

The north Pennine building by way is a loco charging shed, I know the place.

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A revisit in daylight with a camera with a longer lens allowed some more detailed pics. I'm not sure that it will allow any greater certainty as to its purpose.[img🔗114458[linkphoto]114458[/linkphoto][/link]
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