The engine house once housed a newcomen type pumping engine that kept an iron mine dry. See link for animation of how these worked [url]http://www.topforge.co.uk/Other%20sites/Newcomen3.swf[/url] />The house is built from sandstone and with its castellated top now looks a little like a folly. It has a date stone bearing the date 1813, but it is thought that the mine predates this.The engine is said to have been moved to the Chapletown area around 1870.There is a cutting to the east of the enginehouse that was the trackbed of the Pilley Hills Colliery Branch of the Worsborough Railway.It has been suggested that the mine may also have produced coal. The coal in this area is at a deeper level than the iron and mining maps of the area do not show any working in this area in the coal seams.Bought along with the Rockley Furnace (in 1957), the engine house has been the subject of major conservation work afew years back.Rockley Furnace and Engine House area adjacent to each other, sandwiched between Rockley lane and the M1 motorway (just north of Junction 36). There is limited parking at the side of the lane and a marked footpath past the engine house to the furnace. While an effort is made to keep the undergrowth at bay, the site suffers from minor vandalism that has resulted in the information board for the furnace remaining at Wortley Top Forge.(May have been part of Pilley Hills Coal Mine Workings)
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