Thread: Bestwood Winding Engine House, Notts

All that remains of the Bestwood Colliery is the Winding Engine House & dynamo House. A restoration programme was completed earlier this year, which involved work on both buildings and the Headsticks & Vertical Winding Engine which dates from 1873 (excellent work involving the local authorities & volunteers )

Lucky to have a "sneek" preview before it opened to the public, so here are the pics:

Bestwood in heyday



What remains today
















Winding engine house from the headsticks (not a view the public get )


Dynamo House- restored to give visitor information & facilities for the local community



Details of the vertical winding engine & winding drum















The Visitor Lift -which provides means to view all the floors of the engine house & gives an audio commentary too!




Worth a visit if your in the area, but details of opening times, etc were still to be sorted when I visited earlier in the year

Nice bit of restoration!

Originally Posted by Miss Survey

Nice bit of restoration!

The volunteer group had been looking after the place for a number of years (with permission of the local authority- Stoke are you listening ) and opened it at weekends, etc. This latest restoration (around £2.5 million I think) involved all the buildings & structures, plus the installation of new equipment to "operate" the engine, winding drum & the headstick wheels.

The lift was put in to make all floors accessible in the engine house, but last I heard visitors would be allowed in, enter the lift & simply see the building floor by floor without getting out. although it means all are able to see without the need of direct supervision (monitored from the Dynamo house by Country Park rangers), it looses something in the experience. Still, at least its open

Nice Pics

Thanks Oildrum, may have a wander around there, only around the corner from me.

Originally Posted by bulwellmick

Thanks Oildrum, may have a wander around there, only around the corner from me.

Perhaps let us know opening times if you do visit Mick

Here you go Oildrum.

The Winding Engine House opened to the public on Saturday 31 July and is now open every Saturday from 10am to 1pm until the end of October.

Regards, Mick..

The Winding Engine House opened to the public on Saturday 31 July and is now open every Saturday from 10am to 1pm until the end of October. From Bestwood Country Park - Nottinghamshire County Council

Originally Posted by oildrum

The volunteer group had been looking after the place for a number of years (with permission of the local authority- Stoke are you listening ) and opened it at weekends, etc. This latest restoration (around £2.5 million I think) involved all the buildings & structures, plus the installation of new equipment to "operate" the engine, winding drum & the headstick wheels.

The lift was put in to make all floors accessible in the engine house, but last I heard visitors would be allowed in, enter the lift & simply see the building floor by floor without getting out. although it means all are able to see without the need of direct supervision (monitored from the Dynamo house by Country Park rangers), it looses something in the experience. Still, at least its open

If that is true it puts people like me out of seeing it, I am scared of lifts (more accurately being in a situation where I can't get myself out), so would want to 'use the stairs'.