Former Cornish pumping engine house at Hemingfield Colliery

This is a former Cornish pumping engine house, built in 1843 for the 5th Earl Fitzwilliam under the direction of Benjamin Biram. It was later converted to domestic use in 1934, and was part of a mine pumping station that operated from 1920 to 1989.

The building is constructed of finely-dressed, horizontally-tooled sandstone ashlar, with a 1934 red brick extension and flat concrete roofing. The plan is single-celled over two storeys, now featuring an inserted domestic staircase and room divisions. A brick extension on the south-east side adds a room to each floor and serves as the current entrance.

The south-west wall, known as the ‘bob wall,’ is exceptionally massive, over a metre thick, and constructed of tightly-jointed stone blocks, supporting the beam of the original steam engine. A tall, narrow aperture is bricked up, facing the pumping shaft to the south-west. Reinforced concrete headframe backstays are attached to the wall above the shaft. The other three walls are built of smaller, but well-dressed and tightly-laid stone blocks. A large arched opening is in the north-west wall, originally for the insertion and removal of the steam engine cylinder. This opening is now blocked with matching stonework, which was later cut to create a large ground-floor opening with an exposed steel I-beam lintel. Smaller domestic window openings, also with I-beam lintels, are located on both ground and first floors to the north-east. A 2019 site inspection noted that the large ground floor opening was then infilled with blockwork. The south-east wall is largely hidden by the brick extension, which incorporates inserted windows on both floors, again with I-beam lintels.

The interior contains a 20th-century staircase, partitions, and wall linings, which may conceal original features.

The associated pumping shaft and concrete headframe, together with the wider Hemingfield Colliery site and the ground beneath the engine house, are included within a Scheduled Monument.