Coke Ovens

SD 83 SW

SD 848 308 HABERGHAM EAVES (off) TODMORDEN ROAD

4/40 Coke Ovens

• • II

Bank of 'beehive' coke ovens, now overgrown and partly ruinous, c.1850. Built basically of brick but with a sandstone rubble retaining wall at the lower (east) end. A rectangular block, built up and into a slight slope, measuring roughly 30m by 12m and containing (originally) two rows of six kilns each; those on the north side are more badly damaged. Each kiln is circular in plan with a diameter of about 4 metres and is composed of a domed vault about 2.5 metres high, built of a single skin of yellow/brown bricks, laid in header bond, and now vitrified at the inner end. (Some of these bricks have been stamped with the initials WFB). Originally, each kiln appears to have had a round-headed ventilation hole at the front, a flue at the back and a circular charging hole at the top. History Built by an as yet unknown firm and superseded by the coke ovens established immediately to the north by the Towneley Colliery and Brickworks Company, which began production in 1874. A large and relatively well-preserved example of a now uncommon type.

Listing NGR: SD8488230787