Chatterley Whitfield: power house (4)

Former colliery power house of 1895, extended in 1900 and 1903, with minor late-20th-century repairs.

The building is constructed of brick under roofs of asbestos cement, tile and profiled metal sheeting. Most windows have round-arched heads with either metal or timber frames. Square-headed openings appear to be later insertions. Lintels and sills are a mix of brick and concrete, and rainwater goods are cast iron.

The plan is accretional, comprising an L-shaped two-storey building of two ranges built in two phases, with two abutting single-storey wings to the south-west (one believed to be the original power house and the other a workshop). A further small building to the south-west has been demolished.

The north-west elevation of the electric shop is divided into five bays by pilasters rising to a moulded brick parapet. The ground floor appears to have had no original openings, though a window and doorway have been inserted towards the right-hand end. The first-floor windows have been substantially altered: two are blocked and a doorway inserted into the left-hand one, the central window has been made smaller, and those to the two right-hand bays are later insertions. At the east end of the range are two plaques inscribed '19 CW 00' and 'enlarged / 1903' respectively. The gable wall of the single-storey wing to the right has a blocked central window flanked by two inserted windows, above which is a cast-iron plaque inscribed '18 CW 95'. The right return has three bays, each containing a window. The upper section of the electric shop's gable wall is visible above the wing, with raised brick coping (rebuilt in late 20th century) and two round-arched wooden-framed windows below. The first floor to the south-east elevation has three windows, the right-hand one within a projecting annexe. Its ground floor is partly obscured by the lower wings, but a doorway serves the annexe. The left wing has a blocked round-headed entrance with an inserted doorway to the right. The other wing has two round-headed windows at ground floor and a third to the gable apex, all blocked. The south-west elevation of the south-east range (power house) has a large inserted entrance with roller-shutters and a pedestrian door at ground floor, five round-headed windows above set in panels defined by pilasters, and a parapet. Its south-east gable wall has a blocked ground-floor entrance and four first-floor windows, all with round-arched heads. Projecting metal brackets for pipework are fixed to the upper sections of brickwork. The north-east elevation is of similar style to the opposing side, with a taking-in door at first floor to the left-hand bay. Metal brackets support a length of pipework. To the far right is the north-east gable end of the electric shop, which has round-headed windows to the upper floor and an oculus with timber louvre high in the apex.

The interior (not inspected in 2013) has walls mostly faced with white-glazed bricks. Manually-controlled overhead gantry cranes formerly operated within each hall, with crane rails supported on steel columns and corbelled brick. The upper and lower concrete floors to the south-east range (power house) are carried on concrete and brick piers extending through the basement to foundation level. Rail tracks pass through its ground floor, with some division of the space by blockwork walls. Concrete engine plinths survive to both floors, though the engines have been removed. The north-west range (electric shop) has a concrete floor and is open to the roof, but formerly had a first floor. The roof throughout has lightweight steel trusses and tie bars, although the south-east range has timber purlins and rafters of c.1980. The roof at the junction of the two ranges is supported by steel columns and horizontal beams with decorative steel brackets between them. The building retains historic fittings including early electrical conduits, light fittings, a wrought-iron spiral staircase, mounting boards and quarry floor tiles, some very decorative. The single-storey wings, attached transversely to the south end of the electric shop and accessed from there, retain late-19th-century timber king post trusses in one case, though the roof to the other was not accessible (2001).