18276

 

II  

Designated  

18/03/1997  

18/03/1997  

Grove Colliery Cornish Beam Engine House  

 

Pembrokeshire  

Kilgetty/Begelly  

Kilgetty  

Grove Colliery  

213909  

207110  

 

100 m SW of Kilgetty Ironworks, on the W side of Pleasant Valley. The engine house is at the centre of a group of ruined colliery buildings, close to a quarry face at its rear.  

Industrial  

 

In 1845, in anticipation of establishing iron furnaces at Kilgetty, the Pembrokeshire Iron and Coal Company started to consider sinking a new pit at Grove. The decision was taken in 1852 and the new pit opened in 1856. By this time the Ironworks was in production. The pit was linked underground to the workings of the older Kilgetty Colliery, which it drained. It had a tramway link directly to the Ironworks and was also connected to the Saundersfoot Railway. The shaft was of large diameter, described in 1859 as the largest in Wales. Its main purpose was to reach the Kilgetty Vein, found at 105 fathoms (189 m), but the vein proved to be very disappointing. Regular exploitation of the colliery outlived the Ironworks, and ceased in 1884. Thereafter the shaft was maintained for pumping and ventilation. By 1900 it was proposed to remove all machinery from Grove to Kilgetty Colliery, which was presumably done. It is reported that there remains a fully equipped stable at the foot of the shaft. At that time the machinery consisted of an engine of 274 h.p., with a cylinder of 80" (2 m) and 10ft (3 m) stroke in-house and a stroke of 8ft (2.45 m) in-pit. The shaft has been capped in concrete and the engine house now remains with a few other ruined buildings. The enterprise was described by M R C Price, the local historian, as "an imaginative and expensive venture that went badly wrong", but its engine house is a magnificent ruin.  

A very large beam engine house of Cornish type, about 7 m by 10 m in plan. It faces N to the position of its pit, now capped. It is now roofless but the building is complete to its full height. Walls faced in squared limestone externally in irregular courses, but with a backing of local sandstone. The exception is the bob-wall, about 1.65 m in thickness, entirely in limestone. Above beam bearing level the masonry changes to larger courses. There is a tall arched aperture to the front and a lower but wider archway to the rear. The arches are plain and of circular form. Smaller brick-arched openings in the side walls. Apertures internally for girders in the N and S walls. High-level window apertures at sides and rear, arched with backing lintels, and splayed sides. Internally the building has been plastered, but some finished stonework internally indicates that it was originally fair-faced masonry. Scheduled Ancient Monument Pe 418.  

 

Listed as a very fine colliery engine house of the Cornish type and for group value with the listed buildings of the Kilgetty Ironworks.