Powder Magazine at Snibston Colliery

Summary

The Powder Magazine is a mid-C20 purpose-built explosives store forming part of the Snibston Colliery complex, one of the most significant and productive C19 and C20 coal mining sites in England, now preserved as a mining museum.

Reasons for Designation

The Powder Magazine at the former Snibston Colliery, a component of one of the best and most complete surviving examples of a mining complex dating from the British coal industry's period of peak production, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:

* As an element of a multi- phase integrated colliery complex recognised as one of four such sites which best represent the coal mining industry in England from the late C19 to the period of peak production in the mid-C20;
* As a building forming part of a colliery complex first developed by the celebrated engineer George Stephenson, and incrementally developed throughout the C19 and the first half of the C20;
* As a building which contributes to the integrity, context and setting of an historic industrial site acknowledged as being of national importance by its designation as a Scheduled Monument.

Architectural interest:

* As a specialist industrial building type representative of evolving aspects of colliery activity at different stages of the coal mining industry's development in England;
* As a building which retains significant interior fabric, fixtures, fittings and plan form characteristics, attributes which enhance its special interest as components of an historic colliery site.

Group value:

* As a component of an integrated colliery site, with strong functional and visual group value with other designated parts of the colliery.

History

Snibston Colliery was first developed in 1831-1832 by the celebrated engineer George Stephenson and his son Robert, working in partnership with Joseph Sanders and Sir Joshua Warmsley.

The early colliery was operated by means of three shafts, and was further developed throughout the C19 and the first half of the C20. During the First World War a fourth shaft was sunk and equipped with a steel-framed headstocks, winding house and winding engine. This shaft was sunk to increase the output of the mine, which had been limited by the scale of its winding capacity and surface coal handling facilities. The new shaft was served by new pit top buildings and a new set of screens, and, as part of the same phase of renewal, engineering and joinery workshops, a compressor house and a stable building were constructed. In 1942 the wooden headgear of the No.1 shaft was replaced with a steel-framed headstocks, and following the nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947, further development took place in the 1950’s, including the addition of an explosives store, a power house, and, on an adjacent site, a canteen and pithead baths. A programme of modernisation in the 1960’s and 1970’s saw the replacement of the steam winding engine with electric motors and the construction of a coal preparation plant, an accompanying small-gauge rail system and new brick pithead buildings. In 1967 new service buildings were also added, including workshops, stores and a large administration block which included not only offices, but also a lamp room, time office, control room and medical centre. In 1976 a new fan and fanhouse were constructed for No 1 pit, a prototype development which provided the technological solution to the problem of excessive fan and motor noise throughout the coal mining industry.

As a result of the developments begun in 1961, Snibston became the hub of a group of four mines which were linked below ground, the coal from all four sites being handled at the Snibston coal preparation plant. The colliery continued production until its closure in 1986, and the site subsequently became the Snibston Discovery Park, opened in 1992 following the purchase of the site by Leicestershire County Council. The main central area of the colliery site was scheduled on the 19th March 1999, having been assessed as one of the four colliery sites in England which best represent the development of the coal industry in England since the 1890’s. A number of buildings were excluded from the scheduling, listing being considered to be the most appropriate form of designation for these structures.

The Powder Magazine, was built between 1947 and 1951 as part of the mid-C20 development of the Snibston Colliery.

Details

A purpose-built explosives store, part of the mid-C20 development of the Snibston colliery, completed between 1947 and 1951.

MATERIALS: red brick, with plain concrete dressings and a bitumen-coated flat roof.

PLAN: a single-cell, rectangular plan with compartments for separated storage of explosives.

EXTERIOR: the Powder Magazine is located immediately to the north of Winding House No 2. The building is single-storeyed, with single doors at each end of the front (north) elevation, and a series of seven small window openings with glass block glazing beneath a continuous lintel band set between the two doorways. The remaining elevations are devoid of openings.

INTERIOR: the interior is divided longitudinally by a continuous counter from which explosives were dispensed. The two doorways were apparently arranged for an 'In' and 'Out' passage through the building; those with explosives departing from the other end of the building to the doorway used to enter. Behind the counter on the south side are a series of compartments set into an internal wall, separating the dispensing area from the explosives storage area. At the east end of the building, beyond the end of the counter is a small, separate room with an open-fronted storage unit with numbered individual compartments. Against the east end wall is a further storage unit. The Powder Magazine stored explosives and detonators in a secure and carefully- monitored environment, and was used to distribute materials and to receive and arrange for the disposal of unused explosives.

End of official list entry

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