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Powys Metal Mines Survey


Penyclun

Penyclun lies in the community of Llanidloes Without in the county of Powys. It is located at Ordnance Survey national grid reference SN93008730. The mine is recorded in the CPAT Historic Environment Record as number 5938 and this number should be quoted in all correspondence.

Lead (1845-1872)

Geology
Ordovician Van formation. A single vein with an ENE strike contained lead and zinc ores with barytes and witherite gangue.

Workings
There is a shaft connecting to the adit north of the engine house at SN93008731. The Deep or Eastern adit was not identified. There was a trial shaft in the wood to the north at SN93128752.

Transport
Earthwork remains of short tramway beds out onto the main spoil tip could be seen.

Power
A two storey Cornish beam engine house survives which was used for driving the winding wheel and pumping rods, it was installed in 1862 at SN93068731. The building is roofless with an adjoining ruinous boiler seating, chimney & wheelpit. The boiler house measures 38x11x3ft, the chimney 31ft high x 6ft wide, the engine house 15x18x25ft. The chimney is leaning badly due to subsidence. Water from the adit now flows through the engine house on occasion.

Processing
The dressing floors were destroyed by land reclamation to the east and consisted of at least 1 wheelpit with jiggers and buddles. Spoil tips are still visible at SN93458770. There is some evidence of dressing close to the engine house with low foundations surviving as earthworks. There was apparently a lead smelting works at Penyclun which was presumably sited close to the dressing floors though no evidence survives.

Other features
There is a possible square magazine house at the eastern end of Penyclun Farm SN93028740. There is a square building 170m to the east of the engine house at SN93258736; its function is not known and it may be unrelated to the other mine buildings. The earthworks to the east of the engine house may represent a mine office as well as minor dressing structures.


This HTML page is reproduced from the Powys and Clwyd Metal Mine Surveys which were undertaken between May 1992 and December 1993 by Mark Walters and Pat Frost of the Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust with financial support from Powys County Council, Clwyd County Council and Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments. Further information about this site is available in CPAT's Regional Historic Environment Record.
Page produced by Rachel Stebbings and Chris Martin.