Langham Hill Engine House

This engine house was built in 1866 for the second hand beam engine (25”/62.5 cm Ø cylinder) and two boilers brought over from South Wales. 

Morgan Morgans, the general manager of the mines had decided in 1865 to connect three existing underground workings, and to raise the ore to surface by sinking a new shaft at Langham Hill (now enclosed by a fence). 

Ladders were the only means by which miners could go underground.  Each ladder rested on a timber platform, so if a miner fell he would only fall as for as the next platform down, rather than the 200 metres (650 feet) depth of the mine shaft. 

Trams ran down the steep shaft on rails, where miners loaded them with iron ore.  After being hauled back to the surface by the beam engine, the ore was tipped into the railway wagons which eventually re-joined the West Somerset Mineral Railway. 

The engine house was built in the Welsh style with masonry platforms and worked until it was decided in 1876 to close the mine.  In 1878 not only was Langham Hill engine dismantled and taken by rail to Burrow Farm mine, but also the engine and boiler house to be re-assembled by Henry Skewis in the Cornish manner. 

Operation of Langham Hill Engine House 

1. The coal-fired boilers raised steam to drive the beam engine.
2. The beam engine drove the flatrods.
3. The flatrods passed down the shaft and worked a pump far underground which kept the mine free of water.
4. A pair of winding drums hauled the trams loaded with ore up and out of the mine shaft.
5. The mine shaft.
6. The gantry where the ore was tipped into the waiting wagons of the Mineral Line.
7. A reservoir for the boilers.

...top