Double Engine House

In Kilgetty Ironworks, on the W side of Pleasant Valley. The Engine House stands a short distance to the N of the Casting Shed.

Kilgetty Ironworks was planned from 1846 by the Pembrokeshire Coal and Iron Company. Four, or possibly six, furnaces were anticipated. The works commenced production in 1849 with two furnaces, only one of which was then brought into blast. A year later production was halted due to an explosion. Grove Colliery was opened in 1856 to supply coal. Success was only moderate, and by 1861 the Company was in difficulties; in 1863 it was acquired by C H Vickerman and a brief period of prosperity commenced. In this heyday the works were pictured by M S Whatley. The furnaces were blown out in 1867, and Vickerman contemplated selling. For this purpose an inventory of the works was drawn up in 1872; James Carlton and the Bonville's Court Coal and Iron Company purchased them and brought in new investment. In 1873 a furnace was again in blast, but was blown out again a year later at a time of trade depression. The new owners went into liquidation in 1876 and the works closed in 1877. Vickerman, the main creditor, was able to buy the works back at a modest price. In 1888-9 the plant was dismantled and sold, but the buildings remained in workshop or storage use.

The Engine House contained the blowing engines for the furnaces. They were described in the 1872 inventory as two vertical blast engines, each with a 16 ft (4.87 m ) flywheel, fitted to work together or separately. No. 1 had a 34" (86 cm) steam cylinder and a blowing cylinder of 64" (1.63 m) with a 7 ft (2.73 m) stroke. No. 2 had a 30" (76 cm) steam cylinder and a blowing cylinder of 58" (1.47 m) also with a 7 ft (2.73 m) stroke. The inventory also mentions a third engine: this was a beam engine with a steam cylinder of 24" (61 cm) and a 5 ft (1.52 m) stroke. This smaller engine was evidently sited in the annexe to the main building, at the NE corner. Its beam probably pivoted on the W wall of the annexe. The Engine House as it appears in Whatley's painting in 1865 already included the annexe.

Whatley's painting indicates that the boiler house raising steam for these engines was in close proximity to the N.

The House evidently remained in use for some purpose after the final removal of the engines in c.1889. Some of the apertures are blocked and the void for the flywheels is partly filled in masonry. It lost its roof at a date after 1906.