Chatterley Whitfield: electrical and mechanical fitters' shop (15)

Former electrical & mechanical fitters' shop (15) of circa 1935; altered in the later C20 to a mining-car repair shop.

MATERIALS: steel framed with single-skin infill panels of brick; the framework expressed externally as a rectangular grid pattern. The west gable end has been sheeted over with profiled metal cladding. The steel truss roof is clad with asbestos cement sheeting incorporating strip patent glazing roof lights, and there are ridge ventilation cowls.

PLAN: three linked parallel ranges orientated roughly west-east, with the south (rear) range extending only part of the length of the rest of the building. Each range is a single bay wide.

EXTERIOR: the north elevation of seventeen bays has windows with metal frames at two levels in the lower part of the wall, several of which have been bricked up. The upper part of the elevation lacks openings. There is a large entrance with double doors to the right-hand (west) end, and two smaller doorways towards the centre and east end respectively. The pattern of two rows of windows is replicated to the gabled east elevation, with large sliding doors to the central and left-hand bays; the latter serving rail access into the building. The rear (south) elevation also has the same arrangement of window openings with a wide entrance towards the western end. There is a similar opening, with sliding doors, in the west gable end of the south range. Although the west elevation has been clad in corrugated sheeting, the former window openings are visible within the building. There are a number of steel access ladders, walkways, handrails, pipework and a vertical flue stack fixed to the outside of the building.

INTERIOR: the outer ranges have overhead travelling crane gantries and supporting stanchions, and there are narrow and standard gauge rails set in the floor through much of the building. A number of internal structures have been built within the fitters' shop; those in blockwork being the most recent additions. The building still contains some machinery including a diesel generator, a saw bench, a gantry for a chain hoist and other plant equipment.