14 C O N T E X T 1 0 9 : M A Y 2 0 0 9 illustrate the history of the transition from water power to electrical power. The history of the building and the machinery was researched. Trust director Steve Oliver discovered an article published in the Iron and Coal Trades Review in 1901, providing an excellent description, with photographs, of the building and its equipment. Simon Hughes from Talybont provided a copy of a 1901 article by Bernardino Nogara, the designer of the building, and a copy of the sale catalogue from 1904. The catalogue listed everything that the mine owned in 1,002 lots. These included a Cornish beam engine, a 50 foot by 4 foot overshot waterwheel, five galvanised buckets, and 34 knives and forks from the canteen. There were 73 lots from the generating station, including the Babcock and Wilcox boiler, the Willans and Robinson steam engine, the Pelton wheel, the AEG alternator, a six-ton weighbridge, 62 creosoted poles fitted with lightening conductors, a set of spanners and two India-rubber mats. Of interest was the note that ‘buyers of lots 280 to 339 will be required to make good any damage done to the building before they remove lots from the ground.’ This never happened. The entire eastern wall was demolished to enable machinery to be removed from the generating room. The demolition is now an increasing cause of concern to the long-term stability of the rear of the building. Graham Levins is secretary of theWelsh Mines Preservation Trust. TheWelsh Mines Preservation Trust thanks the Spirit of the Miners project, the Environment Agency, and Mr and Mrs Williams for their help and support. Researchers were unable to find a floor plan showing the internal layout of the generating station. With the blessing of Henry Williams, it was decided to carry out an archaeological investigation in an attempt to find the footprints of the various pieces of machinery installed within the building.This work began in 2008. Results indicate that the building has three ‘rooms’. Nearest the road is the coal store, the next is the boiler room and at the rear of the building is the generating room, with offices above. In April 2008 a weekend was organised to excavate the floor of the generating room, with the aim of locating what remained of the bases of the Pelton wheel, alternator and the steam engine.The excavation began at the western end of the building, where a flight of steps, the base of the Pelton wheel and the water exit pipe were uncovered. Work progressed across the building, where the base of the AEG alternator and the Willans and Robinson steam engine were revealed. We returned in June 2008 to continue our investigations. We concentrated on the boiler room, our aim being to expose the foundations of the Babcock and Wilcox boiler. We exposed the flue, the boiler surround and the water tank. Measurements were taken and drawings are being prepared. The plan is to return this spring to continue excavating the coal storeroom. On completion, a booklet on the work and research will be published. Left: Looking west, before excavations took place. Above the generating room is the office accommodation, with rendered walls. Right: Looking east, before excavations took place. The steps lead to the boiler room. The far wall was demolished to remove the machinery. The generating room. Mining ceased in 1902 but the processing mill continued to process material on the surface until 1903. A hundred years later, this historic building had become a local dump for rubbish and white goods.
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