Kidwelly Industrial Museum

Carmarthenshire

 

The hot rolling mill and enginehouse at Kidwelly Industrial Museum

Click on pictures to enlarge

Kidwelly Industrial Museum is based on the remains of the last Tinplate Pack Mill in Wales. Once one of the staple industries of South Wales the Hot Dip Hand Tinplate industry has been completely replaced by modern continuous strip mills and, apart from Kidwelly, the mills have all been demolished. The works spent some time as a scrapyard after closure and was eventually rescued in the '70's to become a museum. Sadly, in the interim many of the buildings were lost but enough survives to give a vivid picture of the processes involved. Since the museum was established much other equipment , including a reconstruction of the steam winding engine and colliery headgear from Morlais Colliery , has been moved to the site.

There is an official website, good for up-to-date information on opening times etc. at http://www.llanegwad-carmarthen.co.uk/carmskidwellymuseum.html

The Hot Rolling Mill

The view down the hot mill shed from the near engine . The rolling mills are to the right, a set of shears in the foreground

The Hot Rolling Mill was originally housed in a corrugated iron building typical of those used by the metal working trades of the period. It has been replaced by a modern building of a similar style. The two original Foden engines remain in situ together with a set of rolling mills. The general appearance is sadly spoilt by the intrusive white guardrails that are required by the Health'nSafety Nannies. We must protect our kiddies. 

The engines were built by Edwin Foden of Sandbach about 1870 as single cylinder engines and probably compounded about 1892 when water tube boilers were installed. The 24" high pressure cylinder is tandemed on top of the 48" low pressure cylinder. Both engines are fitted with four sets of shears for bar and sheet cutting and gearing to enable the mills to be rotated slowly to permit the rolls to be refaced. One difference between the two engines can be seen in the photographs, the front engine has shears driven by cranks but the rear engine employs eccentrics.

The near engine has been cosmetically restored. 

The Rolling Mills. Bar shears in the foreground. 24" and 48" x 4' 0" Inverted Vertical Tandem Compound. 24' flywheel. Piston Valves. The rolling mills. Sample billets for rolling can be seen on the boxes. 

Steel billets for rolling down to sheet can be seen resting on the boxes by the rolling mills

   The slow turning gear train and shear drive cranks. Another view of the near engine. The disc crank drove one set of shears.  

  Air pump drive?

 

 The far engine.

The neglected state of this engine shows up the constructional details of the flywheel. The rear engine is not connected to mills at present. This engine may originally have driven the cold rolling mills. Note the eccentric that drove the bar shears.

The years of neglect have had some benefit in that the constructional details of the flywheels can easily be made out. Note the eccentric driving the bar shears.

The Cold Rolling Mill

The Morlais Colliery Winding Engine

Smaller  Engines and Steam Pumps

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