Plans to convert the Victorian Bestwood Winding Engine House, located in Bestwood Country Park, Nottingham, into a visitor attraction have been given the green light.
The restoration of the Grade II-listed building will preserve one of the few remaining in situ twin-cylinder, vertical winding steam engines used for English coal-mining.
The restoration of the building is being funded by a £1.1m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £300,000 from the Greater Nottingham Partnership and further funding from the county council. Construction firm G F Tomlinson Group is carrying out the work.
The central feature of the attraction will be a custom-made, glass lift that will take visitors to the top of the three-storey, 19th century redbrick house -– providing them with views of the surrounding park and the engine.
The nearby electricity sub-station, called Dynamo House, will also be restored. The remaining structure will be extended and converted into a visitor centre with an area for education and community activities, a historical exhibition on the Winding House and a new base for the Park Ranger team.
The site, once a mining pit for the Bestwood Coal and Iron Company, was closed in 1971 and converted into a country park under the joint management of Nottingham County Council and Gedling County Council. “These buildings are the last visible remaining evidence of the Bestwood Pit,” said Stella Smedley, Nottinghamshire county councillor, “We owe it to Nottinghamshire to restore a fragment of its history”.
Construction is due to begin August 2008 and is expected to be complete by summer 2009.
