Former Bersham Colliery Baths, Canteen and Offices

Cadw's description

Location

On the SE side of the lane which leaves Wrexham Road opposite Church Street towards the W end of Rhostyllen.

History

Bersham Colliery was one of the most important in the Denbighshire Coalfield in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It was first sunk in 1869 but was substantially adapted and re-built in both the 1930s and the 1950s before closing in 1986. The baths and office complex was built in 1954 by the National Coal Board.

Exterior

The baths and office complex is a substantial structure typical of the architectural style and physical character of post-war baths. It is of brick with shuttered concrete roofs and glazed rooflights, on an irregular 'L' plan of one to three storeys. The most westerly part is the single storey former canteen with large windows facing the yard. The medical centre was adjacent. From here to the central plenum tower were the showers and lockers, in a single storey range with a blank wall facing the yard and raised rooflights. The middle of the block is marked by the three storey plenum tower, fronted by continuous mullioned windows. It provided hot air for the drying lockers and housed the main staircase to the two-storey office section to the NE. A canopy fronted the offices to provide covered access between the pit-head and the baths: this survives partly intact and partly as columns only. The most northerly single-storey section is also fronted by the canopy with clerestory windows above and a rooflight of glass bricks.

Interior

The building has been converted to offices, a cafe and enterprise workshops. Many original features survive, including the central wall dividing the showers from the lockers, and tiled dados.

Reason for designation

Listed for group value with the colliery headframe (Scheduled Ancient Monument De 199) and winding house, as an example of a post-war baths building.