Burrow Farm Engine House

This engine house was built in 1879 to the design of the Cornish mines captain Henry Skewis with the materials from the engine house at Langham which was dismantled for this purpose. Scheduled in 2004 and listed Grade II, it is the only engine house of this type to survive in Somerset.

In construction it is typical for the rectangular Cornish style: it has two main storeys, mostly of coursed flat rubble (killas) slabs without worked quoins. A tall tapering round stack is situated at the north east corner with upper part of red brick on the Cornish pattern.

Burrow Farm engine house in 1964

The photographs above and to the right, show the building ruined and roofless.

Burrow Farm engine house undergoing consolidation by Exmoor National Park Authority in 1990

The building originally housed a large Cornish type 63.5 cm rotary beam engine (moved from Langham) and did pumping and winding duty at Burrow Farm Mine.

A sidings joined it to the West Somerset Mineral Railway. The mine finally closed in 1883 when all mining on the Brendons ceased.

Burrow Farm mine in 1962 in the snow

Repair works to conserve the structure were carried out by the Exmoor National Park Authority in 1990. It included re-pointing of all stone and brickwork, replacement of lintels and the consolidation of the standing walls.

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Burrow Farm drawings

Other websites

Listings description of Burrow Farm Engine House (SCC HER)

Burrow Farm Pit on EH Pastscape

Heal, V (1996) Investigation and Management of Industrial Sites within Exmoor National Park. In: Mining History. Bulletin PDMHS, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 130-133.

Burrow Farm in pictures