Fanhouse and associated structures at Skelton Park disused iron mine

Fanhouse, 1882, for Bell Brother's Skelton Park iron mine.

MATERIALS: brick shaft with sandstone lacing bands; concrete fan room and évasée and air lock room; rendered brick engine rooms.

PLAN: the fan room is sited on the northern side of the shaft with its engine rooms to the east and évasée (a squat square chimney through which the spent air was expelled) to the north. The airlock room, providing access to the shaft, wraps around the south and western sides of the shaft.

DESCRIPTION: the circular, brick-walled extension to the top of the shaft stands to nearly 10m tall and 4.5m in diameter. The fan room is a tall, windowless room that is now roofless. It is has a large opening into the shaft and to its évasée, A low bricked-up opening in the western wall is thought to have been the air intake which would have allowed the air flow to be reversed in the event of a fire in the downcast shaft. The opening through the northern wall of the évasée was for the winding ropes between the top of the shaft and the Secondary Winding House.

The airlock room is a single-storey building, well lit by large window openings. It has a set of double doors in the western wall directly opposite a now blocked opening into the shaft, with a second blocked opening between the room and the shaft on the southern side. The flat roof of the room is now largely missing.

The fan engine was housed in a single-storey pent-roofed building that has lost most of its slate roof covering. Originally a single room, this was divided into two and extended to the north with a further room when the fan was converted to electricity. The structure retains its engine-bed and blocked openings to the fan room.