Building approx. 29 feet by 22 feet.

Thanks for the extra info. Matt but still puzzled.

Gives me something else to think about at 2.30am when I can't get back to sleep.

---

I have those nights too...usually small children are involved...:zzz:

Some further thoughts because I was staring at the photo plan quite a bit yesterday.

1) the boiler is clearly a later addition, probably a replacement of an earlier boiler (which you would expect in the lifetime of a colliery I guess)

2) there was (originally) an internal wall - there are vestiges of a wall face against the east side of the upper brick setting (4-5 faced stones), and at the bottom of the photograph, in line with that above (a line of faced stones with stone infill packed behind against the brick.

Now this might suggest that the wall was removed in its lifetime...you would expect a bit of survival across the middle, I think, especially as the brick stands survive.

One hypothesis might be that it was a winding house, hence the thickened walls, with a drum mounted between the mid-wall and right wall etc but that it was converted to be purely a boiler house, perhaps with the sinking of a second shaft making its position in the complex less usable....

That's my thought for the day

Hi Matt,

Your updates make it quite a lot clearer. I certainly agree that it was a winder house at one stage. The position of the engine house in relation to the two shafts, especially as shown on the Tithe Map, I think, make this a certainty. Not being an expert on steam boilers, a Google for egg-ended boilers shows that these were certainly around before and after the date of the Tithe Map (c 1845).

As for a change of boilers on one installation, the last engine-house we excavated was a Newcomen Engine house where the engine was installed in 1794 and went out of use by 1825. In this period it had three different haystack boilers, situated in different parts of the site. Fortunately we have all the accounts for the mine and so are able to correlate this with the accounts.

I can't account for the apparent removal of engine plinths and the subsequent use of the building. You wouldn't have a steam plant in isolation - steam has to drive something. You say that the tramway had disappeared by the First Edition O.S. map. This suggests that mining here had come to an end, or at least that the coal was being extracted by another route.

To me, the answer may well lie in the County Record Office or a similar repository.

Dave Williams

In a case like this what would Sherlock do? (and I don't mean Steve). He would consult his brother.

My brother suggests a Newcomen winder. He says they were built on wooden sleeper foundations because after a couple of years they were moved as the coal was worked out. he suggests one of these engines with everything minus the boiler on timber foundations hence the lack of deep foundations. The drum or reels would have been also timber mounted but outside the building to the right (east).

He also suggested a study of some of the early Watt winders which like the Newcomen winders were timber mounted and reasonably portable. There is also a possibility that other buildings of similar design could be found over the royalty area if not entirely destroyed by modern housing.

This explanation received yesterday afternoon so slept soundly last night!
:zzz:

---

A Thomas Hair account of 1844 - I appreciate the Googling of said will immediately give you the name and location, so please don't give me away!

'‘Sinking was commenced here in April, 1825; and the first coals were drawn in May, 1827. There are two shafts, contiguous to each other, for the drawing of coal, and another for the pumping engine. The depth to the […] seam, which here averages 3 feet 10 inches in thickness, is 80 fathoms. This is the only seam yet wrought here; but, 25 fathoms below it, the next seam is 3 feet thick. […] The working engines are of 18 and 24 horse power respectively; and the pumping engine is 74 horse power. The screens are covered in, so as to protect the men and boys working at them from the weather; and they are lighted at night by gas, for which purpose a neat gasometer has been constructed near the pit. In addition to the workshops usual at collieries, here is a saw-mill worked by a steam-engine of 6 horse power. ‘

So - winding, pumping and a sawmill, all steam powered.

Newcomen winder sounds great, and a real possibility, I was starting to wonder about whether it would be outside.

Summerlee Museum has a rebuilt Newcomen winder on site.

---

Try this one!

Plate XCIII Winding Engine for John Christian, 1788. Between pp.252-253.
James Watt and the Steam Engine.
Dickinson and Jenkins. 1927.
Moorland Publishing edition 1981.

See my personal page for an illustration. Take that illustration and reverse it and you have it. Now I can't say it's exact nor agree with the external vertical drum but the boiler alongside the winder within one building, the winder being on a wooden base, and the drive to the drum going through the wall fits.

Your picture suggests a circular area to the east covered by a reddish layer which might possibly be from a vertical drum - is there evidence of a central mount in the middle?

Next we want the 3D working animation ... 😉

---

There is another, but much smaller, illustration of the site at Durham Mining Museum which actually shows more of the site than Hair.

---

This accident report indicates that the pumping engine had two boilers:

"26 Nov 1833, Engineman, killed by the bursting of one of the boilers of the main pumping engine"

Source: DMM website

http://tinyurl.com/zf4fexj 

The steam winder at Levant has outside drums.The original winder at Magpie had an outside drum.:)