On the way to Erddig Hall, we passed the winding gear which was quite obviously the gear of a pit head and therefore near an old coal mine. I must admit I thought that it would have been a museum, but apparently after a lot of cleaning up and money spent, they decided that there was not enough local interest, whatever that means. I mean, there might not be a lot of local interest, but I’m sure people will travel. So far I have been down two pits that were part of a museum tour, and I wouldn’t say no to another one.

The other interesting fact is that the mine shafts at Bersham Colliery went so far that it caused instability at Erddig hall causing the last owner to leave after subsidence of 5 feet caused issues. I was surprised that the shafts went that far as Erddig seems quite a way away, but looking on a map it’s only 0.3 miles (0.5 km) away, so perhaps that’s not so far after all. I suppose it’s the fact that when you drive it’s 1.8 miles away, and when you look out to Bersham, the winding gear does look a long way away, but it’s easily in walking distance.

The winding gear looks like it’s in pretty good shape even for something that was probably abandoned 20 od years ago.