CPAT Regional Historic Environment Record
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Pen-y-clun Mine

Primary Reference Number (PRN) : 5938
Trust : Clwyd Powys
Community : Llanidloes Without
Unitary authority : Powys
NGR : SN93008730
Site Type (preferred type first) : POST MEDIEVAL LEAD MINE
Status : scheduled monument

Summary :
Penyclun mine is situated on a northeast-facing slope overlooking the Cerist valley.

Description :
Lead (1845-1872)

Geology
Ordovician Van formation. A single vein with an ENE strike contained lead and zinc ores with barytes and witherite gangue.

Workings
There is a shaft connecting to the adit north of the engine house at SN93008731. The Deep or Eastern adit was not identified. There was a trial shaft in the wood to the north at SN93128752.

Transport
Earthwork remains of short tramway beds out onto the main spoil tip could be seen.

Power
A two storey Cornish beam engine house survives which was used for driving the winding wheel and pumping rods, it was installed in 1862 at SN93068731. The building is roofless with an adjoining ruinous boiler seating, chimney & wheelpit. The boiler house measures 38x11x3ft, the chimney 31ft high x 6ft wide, the engine house 15x18x25ft. The chimney is leaning badly due to subsidence. Water from the adit now flows through the engine house on occasion.

Processing
The dressing floors were destroyed by land reclamation to the east and consisted of at least 1 wheelpit with jiggers and buddles. Spoil tips are still visible at SN93458770. There is some evidence of dressing close to the engine house with low foundations surviving as earthworks.

There was apparently a lead smelting works at Penyclun which was presumably sited close to the dressing floors though no evidence survives.

Other features
There is a possible square magazine house at the eastern end of Penyclun Farm SN93028740. There is a square building 170m to the east of the engine house at SN93258736; its function is not known and it may be unrelated to the other mine buildings.

The earthworks to the east of the engine house may represent a mine office as well as minor dressing structures.
(CPAT Metal Mines Survey)

1. Location

1.1 The Penyclun Mine site lies to the E of the B4518 from Llanidloes to Staylittle road, E of Llyn Clywedog Reservoir. The old workings on the Van Vein run from the south-eastern slopes of the Penyclun Hillfort downhill to a stream which flows eastwards towards the former dressing floor areas, contouring the site on its southern perimeter.

2. Geology

2.1 Solid geology - Ordovician rocks of the Lower Van formation. A single ENE vein includes galena and sphalerite with barytes and witherite gangue minerals.

3. The Survey

3.1 The present survey was restricted to the area around the engine house and the deep brick-lined engine shaft (PRN 18334), which remains uncapped and fenced off with its surrounding mound of development spoil downslope.

3.2 The shaft appears to be drained by the adit (PRN 18335) to the SE. Water still flows naturally from this adit into the stream below.

3.3 The two-storey engine house c.5.5 x 4m (PRN 18338) survives to its full height of c.8m to the SE of the adit. It stands roofless, but its timber lintels remain in situ and its architectural features are still discernible (see Plate 11). Bick (1990, 40-41) suggests a rotative engine in operation for pumping and winding relating to the post 1863 ventures by Jehu Hitchins. The bob wall is the W wall. No conclusive evidence remains of the transfer of power presumably by a flat-rod system supported on stanchions. There is no evidence to suggest a flywheel pit. The smallness of the house itself and the cylinder door aperture of only c.1.4m wide suggests a very small engine. The structural remains of the engine house complex are stone-built with brick quoins and appear contemporary with the 1860s mine workings.

3.4 The basal remains of the boiler house measuring c.13 x 4m (PRN 18339) survive to c.1m high and adjoin the N wall of the engine house. A doorway at the west end links them.

3.5 The chimney (PRN 18340) stands to the E of the engine house, linked to the boiler house by a flue. The stack stands on a 2.13m square plinth, but is leaning badly due to subsidence.

3.6 To the SE of the engine house complex, a stone-lined wheelpit (PRN 18341) is aligned to the engine shaft uphill. Although water now runs through following a natural course from the adit, its source of power appears to have been from two reservoirs (PRN 18336/18337), the earthwork banks of which remain to the west of the wheelpit. The wheelpit appears to pre-date the engine house complex and presumably powered a winding or pumping arrangement via the drainage adit (PRN 18335). The reservoirs may later have provided water for the engine condenser and the boiler. A letter (DD/WY/5335) from James Paull at Goginan Mine to John Taylor Junior (mining engineer) dated 6.12.1860, refers to his visit to Penyclun. The engine level has been driven to intersect the main lode, a new eastern shaft has been commenced and a wheelpit has been cut below the engine house for the purpose of erecting a new 60ft wheel to drain the mine. Paull suggests that a reservoir should be made in the valley, a little to the north to provide water for the pumping wheel and for the crushing and dressing of ore.

3.7 A building platform (PRN 18711) is evident uphill of the wheelpit and off the S wall of the engine house. Two iron bolting rods protrude in this area.

3.8 To the N of the engine house complex, the earthworks of a large building platform (PRN 18342) are possibly the site of a former mine office, workshop complex or earlier dressing floor areas. Considerable spoil tips lie all along the N bank of the stream.

3.9 A letter (DD/WY/5352) dated March 1853 refers to Mr Lefaux's request for the farm buildings, sited uphill of Engine Shaft, to be included in the mine lease. He wanted to convert the farmhouse and buildings to labourer's cottages and build another housestead in another position. If this was not agreable, he would build cottages in the field between the two levels that he had driven. The letter refers to the completion of a smelting house on the site. From April 1853, the farm was included in the lease and by 1861, according to a letter (DD/WY/5336), the farmhouse was in a poor state and Mr Lefaux was obliged to contribute fifty pounds out of mining royaties towards its repair. There is no evidence to suggest the farmhouse was ever converted to lodgings or any further reference to the smeltmill.

3.10 The 1870s dressing floors (PRN 18670) were located E of the engine house complex at SN93338750; adit PRN 18673 was located on the west side of the dressing floors with a small rectangular building or coe (PRN 18676) adjoining it. Trials on the slopes of the hillfort and the second main shaft (PRN 18671), which was located at SN93138750 all lie beyond the survey area. both referred to in the 1860 letter from James Paull.

3.11 A 30yr lease (DD/WY/5300) to mine lead, copper, zinc, calamine and black jack was taken out by James Paull on 24.1.1890.

3.12 A lease (DD/WY/5348) between Sir Watkin William Wynn and Isaac Breeze Jones of Llanidloes dated 6.11.1933, allowed the latter to work thw waste tips for the removal of barium mineral.

4. Conclusions

4.1 The standing structures present a now rare example of a small, two-storey, beam engine house and are worthy of statutary protection. The engine house itself, together with the chimney, are presently in need of urgent remedial work to prevent further deterioration and collapse. Of particular concern are to wooden lintels in the engine house, the loss of which would certainly result in the collapse of much of the surviving structure.

4.2 The spoil mound around the engine shaft consists of waste excavated as the shaft was sunk. The ore was presumably brought out at adit level. The shaft was presumably naturally drained to a certain depth by the adit, while the pumping wheel was later installed to pump the workings and the engine house complex superceded or supplemented the water power.
(CPAT Metal Mines Survey - ground survey)

Scheduled August 1998. Of national importance as an exceptionally compact and complete group of features from a well preserved mid C19th lead mine. The scheduled area is bounded by a fence line to the south and extends northwards to include the shaft and a building platform.

Sources :
Bick, D , 1968 , CPAT Threat Archive - Penyclun Mine
Bick, D E , 1977 , The Old Metal Mines of Mid Wales 4
Bick, D E , 1980 , title unknown - Montgomery Metal Mines list , Archaeology in Wales : 36 : 83
Bick, D E , 1990 , The Old Metal Mines Of Mid-Wales
Cadw , 1996 , Cadw Field Monument Wardens Report - Mg246(POW)
Cadw , 1997 , Cadw Field Monument Wardens Report - Mg246(POW)
Cadw , 1998 , Scheduling map - Mg246(POW)
Cadw , 2000 , Cadw Field Monument Wardens Report - Mg246(POW)
Cadw , 2000 , Cadw Field Monument Wardens Report - Mg246(POW)
Chapman, N , 1986 , National Monuments Record: Notes by N Chapman (July)
Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust , 1983 , Site visit record - PRN5938
Evans, O , CPAT Threat Archive - Penyclun Mine
Foster-Smith, J R , 1978 , The Mines of Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire
Hall, J. & Sambrook, P. , 2015 , Glyn Farm, Van, Llanidloes, Powys. Historic Environment Assessment Revised ( © Trysor)
Hamer, E , 1872 , A parochial account of Llanidloes (continued) , The Montgomeryshire Collections : 5 : 1-48
Jones, J A & Moreton, N J M , 1977 , The Mines and Minerals of Mid-Wales
Jones, N W and Frost, P , 1996 , Powys Metal Mines Ground Survey 1994 ( © Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust)
Jones, O T , 1922 , Lead and Zinc. The Mining District of North Cardiganshire and West Montgomeryshire
Kennedy, A E , 2003 , Tir Gofal Management Plan: Heritage Management Information (HE1). Lower Bwlchllyn - E/08/3762
Ordnance Survey , 1886 , OS map
Various , 2005 , CBA Wales Cymru. Newsletter 29
Williams, C. J., & Bick, D , 1992 , List of metalliferous mine sites of industrial archaeological importance

Events :
123076 : Powys Metal Mines, topographical survey 1994 (year : 1994)
124788 : Llanidloes, Glyn Farm, historic environment assessment, 2015 (year : 2015)

Related records
CPAT Historic Environment Record (HER) 5938
National Monuments Record NPRN 34010 http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/34010/

Compiled date : 31-12-1984


Images :



Archaeological data, from the Historic Environment Record, supplied by The Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust in partnership with Local Authorities, Cadw and the partners of ENDEX © CPAT, 2025 (and in part © Crown, 2025). It is intended to be used for private research only and is not for use as part of commercial projects. If you wish to use this information for publication in printed or multimedia form or to compile resources for commercial use, prior permission must be obtained in writing. Use of this information is subject to the terms and conditions of access to HER data published on CPAT's website. Please contact the HER if you have any further questions regarding this information. Please quote the Primary Reference Numbers (PRNs) in any correspondence.

May 16, 2025, 12:45 am - File produced for Archwilio from CPAT's Regional HER.
Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust, The Offices, Coed y Dinas, Welshpool, Powys, SY21 8RP
tel (01938) 553670, email her@cpat.org.uk, website www.cpat.org.uk

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