Cefn Coed Colliery chimney and boiler house flue

Cadw's description

Location

Located at the Cefn Coed Colliery Museum in the Dulais Valley, on the A4109 two miles north of Aberdulais. The tall brick stack forms a considerable landmark immediately adjacent to the main road.

History

Cefn Coed Colliery was sunk in 1926-7 at that time being the deepest anthracite mine in the world with two shafts over 732m deep. The colliery began production of high-quality anthracite in 1930, employed over 900 men in 1945 and closed in 1968. The site remained in use in association with the Blaenant Drift Mine in the valley floor to the south, which was driven in the 1960s and closed in 1990. The Cefn Coed Colliery Museum was established in 1978 and has within its area at the side of the site several important monuments, including the colliery’s original steam boilerhouse, compressor house, electrical generating house, two headframes and the winding house of No 2 shaft with the original steam winding engines. The chimney was built probably in the late 1940s, to replace a metal chimney in the same position and of similar height and proportion.

Exterior

Colliery chimney, red brick, mainly circular in form, slightly tapering with a convex cornice some 2-3m below the top. Base is hipped to form a wider octagonal ground plan. On N side is blocked doorway with semi-circular arch of brick voussoirs and at the rear (E side) a large iron door and control machinery. Connected to the base of the chimney at the rear is large brick flue running N and rising from the boiler house. Access door at SW end now blocked. The chimney and flue served the six Lancashire boilers in the adjacent buildings which provided steam to run the winding engines.

Reason for designation

Listed for group value with this exceptionally complete colliery complex, rarity as a surviving colliery chimney and flue, and value as a local landmark.