tarboat's photos with the keyword: newcomen

This unprepossessing building once housed the Newcomen atmospheric type steam pumping engine for the Redacre Colliery in Lyme Handley, Cheshire. The building has had the top section and pitched roof removed at some time. The bob wall is the section to the right with the shaft immediately in front. There is also a stone-lined spillway to the river on the right. The pit was working before 1800 and seems to have continued until the 1840s.

This former Newcomen enginehouse close to the blast furnace at Moira has been dated to 1805 based on a dated beam within. It pumped the Furnace Pit before conversion to housing in the nineteenth century. It is listed Grade II.

Whilst out and about with fellow Flickrite, Tom Swailes, we spotted this building and were both struck by how much it resembled a colliery pumping enginehouse. It soon became apparent that it was indeed a colliery building that had probably housed an atmospheric beam pumping engine of the Newcomen type. It is actually a three storey structure built against a bank so that only two are visible on this side. Closer inspection of the stonework reveals that the long window is situated in what was a much larger space through which the beam projected. The lean-to structure under the beam wall is a modern addition. There is a stump of a chimney at the corner of the building, just in front of the white chimneystack of the adjacent cottage. The shaft was 215 ft deep and has been filled and capped by the Coal Authority a few years ago. More research is needed to try to discover where the outlet tunnel emerged lower down the hill. Tom was also able to find an advert for the sale of an engine from this colliery in 1834. I am fairly certain that it relates to this building. The description was: "Atmospheric STEAM ENGINE, the cylinder 44 inches diameter, new oak beam, with cast iron arch heads, and works a seven feet stroke; 36 yards 2 feet of 12 inch pump trees with pump rods complete, 39 yards 7 inch ditto, ditto one boiler, 26 horses power, in excellent condition; one ditto, 20 ditto, ditto; new oak head geering over pit and new eapstone and rope; one windlas and rope."

The Westfield Pit was sunk in 1820 and the Newcomen pumping engine was set to work in 1823 to pump water for nearby Newbiggin Colliery. The shaft still forms a part of the Harworth pumping regime with electric pumps in place.