History

Cwm Coke Works was established in 1957 by the National Coal Board to produce coke from coal mined at Cwm Colliery. The coke was used in iron foundries, metal smelting furnaces, sugar beet refineries, brickworks, and heating boilers. Coke works were once commonplace, and were frequently attached to collieries or steelworks, but few are now operational in Britain. Cooling towers were often found at coke works as well as at power stations, chemical works, and other sites where water cooling was necessary, from the late nineteenth century. The earliest were made of timber, but these were gradually replaced with parabolic concrete structures from the 1920s. Very few wooden cooling towers now survive anywhere, although they were once common features of industrial areas throughout the world.

The towers at Cwm Coke Works are unusual in having been built at so late a date, but they follow traditional construction methods going back to the end of the C19.

Exterior

The south tower is square in plan, approx 6 x 6m and tapers slightly to a flat open top about 15m high. The timber planks which make up the walls are placed vertically and supported on horizontal and diagonal members which are in turn fixed to an exterior frame of vertical posts, also of wood. The base consists of spaced slats to permit ventilation into the tower which causes the steam to condense.

Reasons for Listing

Listed II* as one of an exceptionally rare pair of surviving towers illustrating this important historic technology.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q17743301

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

• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)