Cefn Coed Colliery, No. 1 Shaft Headframe

Colliery headframe, one of two original to the establishment of the colliery in 1926-7 and constructed of steel lattice girders with four vertical supports and two bracing buttresses extending from the head of the tower to the ground on the winding engine side. Each support has a brick plinth at ground level. The lattice girders are joined by rivetted plates. Both structures are some 18m high, with winding sheaves still in place at their tops, and form considerable landmarks in the valley. Both shafts have been capped with steel joists fixed in concrete and metal plate covers. No 1 headframe is the more northerly of the two, and tops the upcast shaft, which was connected underground to the nearby fan house. The interior of the tower is boxed in with steel plates in order to control ventilation and cause air to be drawn in down No 2 shaft. The steel lattices are in good condition and the headframe was in recent use to provide additional access to the Blaenant drift. The structure appears largely as it did when built, apart from the addition of new steel staircase adjoining on the east side, the construction of a new platform at the sheaves level, and the removal of the topmost bracings.