Bettisfield Colliery Winding Engine House and Heapstead

Bettisfield Colliery Winding Engine House and Heapstead is a historic coal mining structure located near Bagillt, where coal mining began in the mid-18th century. The colliery itself was established in the mid-19th century and operated until the mid-20th century. The winding engine house and heapstead were likely built around the 1880s and originally housed a horizontal steam engine and winding drum.

The engine house is a tall, gabled brick building with a slate roof and round-headed windows featuring small-paned metal frames. Its brick walls are mostly plain, except for a corbelled eaves cornice. The heapstead structures, which are adjacent to the engine house, are made of rubble sandstone. Each long side of the heapstead has two arched windows grouped at first floor level, along with a square-headed doorway near the west end on each side. The southwest gable has two arched windows at first floor height, a round opening at the top of the gable, and a blocked archway at ground level. The northeast gable features a similar ground-level arch, but the upper sections are constructed with timber beams to create large openings for the winding cables that reach the roof's apex. Two timber brackets, which were part of the wooden headframe, are secured to the sides with wrought iron bands and supported by a line of corbelled brickwork. Notably, no other remnants of the once-common timber headframes are known to exist in Wales. The heapstead consists of several interconnected walls with archways and the brick top of the former shaft, serving as the base for the headframe and providing a platform for dual-level access to the shaft and the tipping of coal drams into waiting wagons. Inside the engine house, the large brick walls and sandstone blocks that supported the engine bed are still intact.

This site is significant as one of the few remaining colliery winding engine houses in North Wales and is notable for its monumental scale. The surviving heapstead and headframe brackets are rare features that contribute to its historical importance.