Winding House And Headstocks At Bestwood Colliery

The Winding House and Headstocks at Bestwood Colliery, built in 1873 with late 19th-century additions, is a significant structure. It is constructed from concrete and brick, featuring stucco quoins and moulded brick and ashlar dressings. The building is designed in the Italian Gothic style, characterized by a hipped slate roof and a flat concrete roof.

Architectural details include a moulded plinth, string courses, and cornices, along with a rusticated basement and pilasters. The structure has two storeys plus a basement and a square plan, with three bays. The west side has three blocked doorways, with a central recess above that contains a mullioned casement flanked by single recesses, each with a casement. Above this, there are two rope holes and a central mullioned casement, followed by a blind gable with a blocked rope hole. The north and south sides each feature two transomed casements, with two multi-keystoned double lancets above and two paired casements above that.

The east side includes an adjoining service wing that is two to three storeys high, topped with a parapet. To the left, there is a door, and to the right, a flat-roofed single-storey addition with a blocked opening and door, along with a casement above.

Inside, the building has cast iron stages adorned with classical ornamentation, an ashlar winder stair with a square newel, and latticed iron minor stairs. The roof features matchboarded chamfered queen post trusses on corbels, reinforced with ornate iron. Notably, the building houses two single-cylinder vertical winding engines with overhead drum and brake gear, which are considered unusual in Great Britain and are said to be the only in situ example. The headstocks outside are clad in trabeated concrete with iron lattice stays, and the building is recognized for its early use of structural concrete.