Chatterley Whitfield: boiler house (16) and chimney (3)

Boiler house (16) of circa 1937 and attached chimney (3) of 1891. Not included in the listing is the dust sampling laboratory (17).

MATERIALS: the boiler house has a steel frame with brick infill panels; the chimney is brick and is reinforced with steel straps.

PLAN: the boiler house is roughly rectangular on plan, with the circular chimney located to the south.

DESCRIPTION: the BOILER HOUSE was formerly a large single-storey building, but its roof and all high-level steelwork were removed in the late C20. The steel frame is expressed to each elevation and supports a single-skin brick panels. Not inspected internally (2013). The ten Lancashire boilers are arranged symmetrically in rows of five to either side of a central access gallery. They are built into a series of brick chambers, and the covering over the chambers is formed of pre-cast concrete with a brick lining. To the front (north) of the boilers is a raised concrete floor. Attached to the rear of each bank of boilers is a continuous brick flue which has a concrete covering. The two flues run transversely through the building and feed into a brick collection chamber adjacent to the chimney where the flue gases were collected. Beyond the flues, and to each side of the collection chamber, are water economisers which take the form of vertical steel tubes with brick walls.

The late-C19 CHIMNEY is a tapering structure with a base diameter of 6.5m which originally stood some 60m high, but has been reduced in height. It has been strengthened with steel straps, some of which are of late-C20 date. The former access points around its base have been infilled with brick, and brickwork flues connect the base of the stack with the adjacent boiler house.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached to the north side of the boiler house is the former dust sampling laboratory (17) of circa 1938. This two-storey building has a steel frame with infill panels of brick under an asbestos cement pitched roof. There is an attached single-storey range to the east side, and a two-storey lean-to to the south. There are metal-framed windows to each elevation; a pedestrian doorway in the west gable end; and a loading bay with roller shutters to the east elevation of the single-storey range. Internally, the ground floor has been partly subdivided with blockwork partition walls. This structure is not of special architectural or historic interest.