Penrhos Engine House and Brymbo Bottle

Background History

Now a Scheduled Ancient Monument, John Wilkinson, the pioneering industrialist, built Penrhos Engine House in the late 18th Century, in order to house an engine to pump water from his coal mine on the site. It is thought to be the earliest surviving colliery engine house in Wales. The building was later converted into a cottage - you can still see traces of the old fireplaces, the bread oven and the pigsty!

Nearby, Wilkinson also built the ‘Brymbo Bottle’, a chimney used to condense fumes from the lead smelt immediately below. The lead was brought from Wilkinson’s mines in nearby Minera. The Bottle was partially demolished by the army in 1962 in a training exercise.