21103

 

II  

Designated  

12/01/1999  

12/01/1999  

Cornish Engine House of Penprys Colliery  

 

Carmarthenshire  

Llangennech  

 

Penprys  

254013  

201821  

 

On waste land 50m north of the A4138, 200m west of the minor road to Porth Dafen.  

Industrial  

 

An engine house at Penprys colliery. It is associated with St David's colliery (a Scheduled Ancient Monument in Llanelli Rural community, near Penprys Uchaf, about 500m to the south). Penprys was one of the collieries acquired by the Llangennech Coal Company in the early C19. It was sunk in the late 1820s and worked intermittently until 1908. The engine house was built c1890 to house an engine taken from Old Castle Colliery (closed 1888), and probably constructed to the same dimensions as the house at Old Castle. The Penprys site is marked as 'old shaft' on 1918 Ordnance Survey 25" scale map. The set of engine beds related to it are believed to be intact and complete.  

The ruin of a small Cornish engine house built of local sandstone with dressings to the openings in brick. The masonry is informally coursed with dressed larger stones at the corners. Door openings at south and east. Windows at north and at high level in the east gable. Cambered arches with timber inner lintels. Some of the masonry on the west side has collapsed. The engine house survives for full height but is now roofless. Foundations of associated machinery have been recorded on the west side of the engine house, and are included in the Ancient Monument scheduling, but have been covered by undergrowth and tipping.  

The basement is about 3m below ground level, with a central cross wall.  

Listed as the well-preserved remains of a late-C19 engine house, believed to be the last colliery beam-engine house built in Wales. Ancient Monument no. Cm 266 (and associated with Ancient Monument no. Cm 265, St David's Colliery in Llanelli Rural Community).