23300

 

II  

Designated  

19/05/2000  

19/05/2000  

Briton Ferry Ironworks Engine House  

 

Neath Port Talbot  

Briton Ferry  

 

Briton Ferry Docks  

273384  

193880  

 

On the NW side of Briton Ferry docks and set back on the W side of an access road to Briton Ferry Industrial Estate immediately S of the elevated M4.  

Industrial  

 

Built in 1910 for a blowing engine serving the blast furnaces. The structure was attached to an earlier engine house that no longer stands, but is shown in a photograph of 1951. This accounts for the fact that the N side of the extant building is open. The Briton Ferry Ironworks began production in 1847 with blast furnaces, forge and rolling mills. Its coastal location allowed it to prosper by importing iron ore at a period when older works in the Heads of the Valleys were in decline, although it experienced a period of inactivity in the 1880s for financial reasons. The 'Briton Ferry Works Reconstruction Company' rebuilt the furnace complex in 1890 as the core of several integrated newly-established concerns including the nearby Villiers Tinplate Works and Albion Steelworks. A further programme of expansion at the blast furnace site was initiated in the period 1907-10. This included the replacement in 1910 of the original beam blowing engine by a vertical quarter crank engine by Richardson, Westgarth & Co of Middlesborough, which was housed in the extant building. The old beam engine was retained as a stand by, which explains the survival of the earlier engine house until at least 1951. Production ceased in 1958 when the last furnace was blown out. The building is now disused.  

A tall building of 3-storey height, constructed of concrete blocks on a steel frame and with a flat roof. The narrow N side is open-ended caused by the demolition of the earlier engine house that the present building was attached to. In the 6-bay E wall the openings are inset between plain pilasters, now partly missing on the R side. The lower storey has a segmental-headed doorway offset to the R in the lower storey. Above, the middle storey has tall round-headed windows all blocked but with iron-frame radial glazing still partly visible. The shorter upper storey windows are similar. Between middle and upper storeys are 4 infilled and truncated cast iron pipes of differing diameters. The W wall has similar middle and upper-storey windows. The S wall is 3 bays as defined by plain pilasters. The central bay has a doorway with moulded lintel, and windows above similar to the other walls. Upper L and R are projecting I-section beams.  

Not inspected.  

Listed for industrial archaeological interest as a substantial engine house and one of the few surviving structures related to the coastal iron and steel industry of C19 and early C20 Wales.