Cwmsymlog Mine chimney

Cadw's description

Location

Situated to N of track that continues from metal road E out of Cwmsymlog

History

Lead-mine chimney, mid C19, of the Cwmsymlog Mine. Cwmsymlog was an important lead and silver mining area in the C18, the richest of any mines in His Majesties dominions, according to Lewis Morris, who thought that mining had begun here before the dawn of Christianity. Certainly it was worked from the C16 to C20, leased from the Pryse family of Gogerddan. Spectacularly rich in the early C17 when worked by Sir Hugh Myddelton who is said to have gained £24,000 annually in silver alone from Blaen-cwmsymlog. Myddelton built housing and a chapel here. In 1636 taken over by Thomas Bushell who spent some £11,000 in the Great Level to drain the mine.In 1698 leased to Sir Humphrey Mackworth and the Company of Mine Adventurers extended Bushell's Level working the Blaen-cwmsymlog site until the 1740s. Next William Corbett and John Paynter leased it and found a rich lode in 1749, and had some £11,000 profit 1751-71. Lewis Morris, deputy to Corbett as Steward of the Crown Manors until 1756 when ejected for Paynter, did some mining on his own account to W, near Cwm Canol in 1760. Thomas Bonsall managed the mine from 1771, closed 1793.
Re-opened after 1805 by Job Sheldon & Co, by 1813 three hundred men were employed. Taken over by the Cornish firm Williams & Scorrier in 1825, but closed with drop in lead prices.
About 1839 John Taylor & Sons installed a 20" (50.8 cm) Cornish beam engine, but with no success, and this chimney stands by the site of the engine house, and so almost certainly dates from then. It may however be a ventilation chimney, or have been converted to one. The use of steam power at the mine was short, generally large water-wheels provided the power.
The mine was re-opened by the Taylors in 1850 as East Darren mine and a new 30' (9.15 m) pumping wheel installed. A rich seam was struck and worked with diminishing returns to 1882. Thereafter intermittenltly worked until 1901. After 1845 the mine yielded 24,460 tons (24,949 tonnes) of lead and 415,850 oz (11,768 kg) of silver.

Exterior

Dressed stone lead-mine chimney of some 3 m diameter and 14 m in height, with arched opening at ground level on E side; arch has protruding keystone.

Reason for designation

Included as a prominent and finely built lead-mine chimney on an important industrial archaeological site.