Full Report for Listed Buildings
The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building (i) and any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.
Summary Description
Reference Number
13586
Building Number
Grade
II*
Status
Designated
Date of Designation
05/11/1991
Date of Amendment
18/07/2001
Name of Property
Penallta Colliery No.2 Headframe
Address
Location
Unitary Authority
Caerphilly
Community
Gelligaer
Town
Ystrad Mynach
Locality
Penalltau
Easting
314025
Northing
195795
Street Side
E
Location
Situated between Ystrad Mynach and Gelligaer, on the east side of Penalltau Road. The eastern of the two headframes, at the east of the complex.
Description
Broad Class
Industrial
Period
History
Penallta Collier was built between 1905 and 1909, at the height of the South Wales coal trade. It was established by the Powell Dyffryn Steam Coal Company, the region’s largest mining company, on the most modern principles as the ‘super-pit’ of its day. The surface buildings were laid out in a matching architectural style in a spacious, artificially levelled area, on a rectilinear plan giving the ideal spatial arrangements of activities. The design of the enormous engine hall in particular was an important innovation copied at many later collieries. The colliery became one of the largest in Wales with 3,200 miners and a high output of top-quality steam coal. By 1935, Penallta held the European record for coal produced in a single week. The rolled steel construction of the headframe was still rare at this date.
Exterior
The No. 2 Headframe (the easternmost) is one of the two original headframes for the colliery. Of rolled steel construction, it consists of a four-legged tower with two shear legs to the winder side and a series of cross braces. There are two sheaves, with a railed access platform around them supported by curving braces. Later insertion of metal and concrete structure within and beside the frame contains rooms.
Interior
Reason for designation
Listed II* for its value as a landscape feature and its rarity as one of very few headframes left in South Wales. Group value with other items within this exceptionally fine colliery complex.
Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]
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