CN331

Afon Llugwy Lead Mill  

30/08/2001  

Designated  

Conwy  

Betws-y-Coed  

277201  

357637  

Industrial  

Mill  

Post Medieval/Modern  

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Monument. The monument comprises a lead mill complex associated with Coed Mawr Pool Mine (CN332). The relict remains are situated over 1km to the SW of the mine, on the banks of the Afon Llugwy and are connected via an underground adit. This was used in part as a drainage adit to combat flooding at Coed Mawr Pool, but also provided ore to be crushed at Afon Llugwy Mill. A boiler and steam engine were installed at the mouth of the adit in 1905 to power the rock drills used below ground. A bridge supported compressed air pipes and a tramway, via which ore was transported to the mill. The mill dates to the 1880s and housed crushing machinery and a six-foot Pelton wheel, which was supplied with water from a small reservoir above Diosgydd Isaf to the north, via pipes also carried on the bridge across the river. Adjacent to the mill stood a compressor house (to generate compressed air for the rock drills), a jigger and vanning tables (for concentrating the crushed ore), with smith's and joiner's shops to the SE. The scheduled area is in two parts, one on either side of the river. The northern area includes the mouth of the adit and the northern of two masonry bridge piers. Fragments of the bridge superstructure, including water pipes, lie close to the entrance to the adit. The southern area includes the second bridge pier and the stone-built mill building, which stands to eaves height. Adjacent to the mill, low stone walls show the location of the compressor house, which was probably constructed largely of timber and corrugated metal sheets. There are no visible remains of the smith's and joiner's shops. Eight filter beds or settling ponds further to the SE (some of which are visible as low banks of earth or clay), extracted ore from the water used in the refining process before it was returned to the river. The monument is of national importance as a good example of a late nineteenth-century lead mine mill within a functional group. It has the potential to enhance our knowledge of lead ore processing techniques and retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of associated archaeological features and deposits. The structures themselves may be expected to contain archaeological information concerning chronology and building techniques. The scheduled areas comprise the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive. The northern area is an irregular polygon approximately 30m NNE to SSW by 16m transversely and centred on NGR 277197, 357698. The southern area is an irregular polygon approximately 97m NW to SE by 40m transversely and centred on NGR 277207, 357628.