West Drayton

The River Maun.

The River runs alongside the village of Milton.

The River Maun near Lound Hall

A peaceful spot.

A wet day at Markham Moor Services

Exiting Starbucks onto the service road to the roundabout. The A1 beyond. The roof of Starbucks is of a Hyperbolic Paraboloid design, if you want to be even more confused look that up!!

Martin Dawes

Lound Hall and Bevercotes Pit Wood: aerial 2023

See: Link

Bevercotes Pit Wood: aerial 2023

Markham Moor interchange, services and industry: aerial 2023 (1)

Markham Moor interchange, services and industry: aerial 2023 (2)

Path junction near Lound Hall

We went left.

National Mining Museum, Lound Hall - pumping engine

This was the National Mining Museum in 1985 but it is now at Caphouse Colliery and this particular exhibit has been re-erected in the open there in 2022. This is a horizontal single cylinder Corliss valve engine by Fraser & Chalmers of Erith that drove pumps by ropes from a pulley alongside the flywheel. It was in steamable condition but I never saw it run here and I doubt that many people did. I have a feeling this building was not quite finished and we sneaked in past a barrier.

National Mining Museum, Lound Hall - pumping engine

This was the National Coal Board's National Mining Museum before it was relocated to Chatterley Whitfield and then to Caphouse Colliery. This particular exhibit was re-erected in the open at Caphouse in 2022 after many years in storage. It is a horizontal single cylinder Corliss Valve engine that drove pumps at Ellistown Colliery. It was built by Fraser & Chalmers at Erith. This view shows the Corliss valve drive and trip gear. Quite surprisingly it is only a single eccentric gear. This is unusual in later UK designs because the degree of cut-off is limited by the need to retain appropriate exhaust events. It was more usual to have separate steam and exhaust eccentrics. The cylinder is 13" x 3' and the flywheel 12' diameter.

National Mining Museum, Lound Hall - pumping engine

National Mining Museum, Lound Hall - winding engine house

A lot of resource was sunk into this museum by the National Coal Board, including this newly built building housing a steam winding engine from Donisthorpe Colliery. I believe this has now been scrapped although the building survives. The wooden tandem headgear from Brinsley Colliery has now been re-erected at Brinsley. A great loss.

National Mining Museum, Lound Hall - steam winch

This museum has long since closed and the kit either scrapped or moved to Caphouse Colliery, which is now the National Mining Museum for England. The big drum to the left was on the Donisthorpe steam winding engine that was being re-erected and has now, I believe, been scrapped. The big timbers are the Brinsley Colliery tandem headgear that has now been re-erected at Brinsley. The diagonal duplex, geared steam winch was, I believe, from Shirebrook Colliery and is probably now at Caphouse.

National Mining Museum, Lound Hall - sorry remains

The components on the flat bed wagon were from the Fraser & Chalmers horizontal duplex winding engine that was at Sherwood Colliery. This had a very rare example of Seymour's valve gear and that was probably why one cylinder and part of the crankshaft with the crank and eccentrics had been saved. I suspect they were scrapped long ago when the museum closed.