Building At Harveys Foundry At Sw 5578 3706

A foundry building dating from approximately 1825 to 1840, with earlier origins, situated within Harvey’s Foundry complex. The structure is built of coursed slatestone rubble with dressed quoins, and features brick arches. A section has a part-hipped slate roof. A stable and cart shed range of local rubble and brick, also with a hipped slate roof and brick stacks, adjoins the main block. The overall layout is roughly T-shaped, with a later extension dating to circa 1860 connecting the main block and the stable range.

The main complex comprises a 5-story granary, a machine shop, a boiler room, and an engine room. The granary’s rear wall is slate-clad, with a large ground-floor opening. Other sections of the main building are four stories high, featuring segmental-arched windows. A furnace hole is visible alongside a segmental brick arch, which leads to a vault with a secondary flue hole. Semi-circular arched ground-floor openings are visible at the rear. The engine house boasts a semi-circular brick arch. The western end incorporates a buttressed granite wall with two segmental-arched openings and joist holes, indicating the former location of a boring mill. This wall retains brick springers and an iron socket for supporting a crane rail.

The stable range is two stories high, including loft openings above segmental-arched double openings for cartsheds, with wrought-iron fittings on plank double doors. Stable doors also have a segmental arch. Internal features include heavy beamed floors, visible line shafting, and flywheels. The granary’s basement has two barrel vaults supported by granite piers and cast-iron columns. The engine house retains a flywheel mark and holes indicating the position of a cast-iron entablature for the beam engine. The stables retain softwood trusses.

Harvey’s Foundry was a significant supplier of beam engines from 1779, serving mining industries and drainage projects globally. The surviving foundry buildings were constructed during the firm’s most prosperous period (1825-1870) and highlight its role as a manufacturing facility, with a large beam engine serving as both a power source and a demonstration piece. The foundry’s contribution was instrumental to 19th-century mining operations worldwide.