"The most significant one is at Hawne Colliery on the Sandwell/Dudley boundary where there is still the
winding engine with the fan house, a set of workshops and office," says Walden, whose father-in-law was a county Durham miner.
Visitors had the opportunity to see the historic
winding engine in action and to find out more about the museum's exciting new plans to interpret the history of collieries throughout Caerphilly County Borough as well as telling the specific story of Elliot Colliery and its
winding engine, around which the Winding House museum is built.
Opened in 1777 but closed in 1968, Washington "F" Pit offers visitors a chance to see a Victorian steam
winding engine, engine house and headgear that dates back over 250 years.
The huge
winding engine at the former Woodhorn Colliery near Ashington was used for many years to move miners, equipment and coal up and down the pit shaft on a daily basis.
| TOMORROW, for one day only, visitors to Rhondda Heritage Park have the chance to hop on board a 1966 Rhondda Transport AEC Regent Double Decker bus to visit the former Great Western Colliery Winding House (the Hetty) and see the restored steam
winding engine in operation.
4 The Steam
Winding Engine was taken from nearby Beamish Chophill 2nd Pit and was built by J & G Joicey & Co of Newcastle in 1855.
Also on display are vintage vehicles, traction engines, stationary engines and the colliery
winding engine.
The main problem at the South Wales pits, where
winding engine men, pumpsmen and fanmen have been withdrawn, is considered to be flooding.
For one day only on Saturday, the bus will be taking visitors to the former Great Western Colliery Winding House (The Hetty) to see the lovingly restored steam
winding engine in operation.
Features which survive include the stone base for one of Lord Armstrong's hydraulic engines which served as a
winding engine for the mine shaft, a pit which held an earlier water wheel, a row of bouseteams or bays where miners stored their ore, and an ore washing and dressing floor where water was used to separate the heavy lead ore from lighter waste minerals.