History

Mid-C19 engine house built on part of Minera parish known as 'City Lands' which was beqeathed by Owen Jones (d1659), a butcher of Chester, to 'the poor of every Company of Merchants and Craftsmen in the City of Chester'. The area was let as agricultural land until mid-C18 when a trustee of the charity, Alderman Richardson, promoted lead prospecting. It was so successful that between 1761 and 1781 some £13,000 were paid to the charity in royalties. In 1845, the Minera Tithe Map shows the Corporation of Chester owning some 80 acres (32.4ha) in the parish. The Meadow or Meadows shaft, at 1,380 feet (420.4m) was the deepest of the Minera mines. It is probable that the current engine house dates from 1847 when a new mining company was formed and a new engine installed to help drain water from the mines. Commercial lead mining continued until early C20. The engine house is now part of the Minera Lead Mines and Country Park and since the 1977 listing has been subtantially renovated with a new roof and structural repairs.

Exterior

Mid-C19 engine house of the Cornish type. Three-storey rectangular engine house in coursed rubble stone with quoins at angles. Modern slate roof of slate with painted wooden barge boards. Structure is some 11m high to eaves, 5m wide and 6m long. NW elevation has recently inserted 16-pane hornless sashes with wood lintel on first and second floors and double boarded doors in a round-arched entrance of dressed stone on ground floor. There are two small square recesses between the ground floor door and first floor window and again between the first and second floor windows. SW and NE elevations have single similar openings to first and second floors with single 16-pane hornless sashes on ground floors.
SE front has boarded door on ground floor, a pair of small square openings above some 3.5m from ground level with similar pair some 5m above ground. At second floor level, a restored wooden platform some 3m wide projects approximately 3m. Above the platform are two windows set in renewed horizontally-boarded wall to the ridge.

Immediately SE is restored mining winding machinery in massive four legged timber frame.

Reasons for Listing

Included as the only well-preserved example of the Cornish type engine house once in common use in the Minera lead mining area.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29481969

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
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  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
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  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)