The "Salle des Machines"

This is the machine room for shaft 11, a listed building, as is the whole pit-head frame and the Belvedere.

Connected to the Belvedere by a glass passageway, the Machine Room is a magnificent "concrete cathedral", which formerly housed the machinery essential to the colliery's operation. It now contains three levels (including a new floor), linked by a lift and stairs. and displays the exhibitions "My Body" and "Genes & Ethics".

A little history...

In the days of the coal-mine's operation, this building contained a KOEPE electric pulley extraction machine controlled by a Ward-Léonard generator set providing 2400 horsepower and a capacity of 1000 tonnes.
This system, developed in Germany by Friedrich Koepe, transmitted the movement to a round extraction cable which rolled round the groove of a large pulley and then round the wheels of the frame. A lift cage was fixed to each end of this cable, with a second flat cable attached to the floor of each cage to provide stability and avoid swinging when the cage began to move. A position indicator showed the positions of the cages, so that the machine operator could bring them to the different shaft stations, from where the galleries extended into the mine.