Dolly Pit

This interesting survival is the enginehouse of the Dolly or Barn Pit high up above Buxworth in Derbyshire. The building housed a rotative beam engine used for winding coal from the shaft, which was between the camera and the building. The pit was operated by Messrs Stott and Hall according to the mine plans, and this presumably meant Levi and Elijah Hall who operated other mines at Ollersett and Gowhole. The colliery worked the Yard Seam and coal was sent down a tramway from here to feed the limekilns at Bugsworth Basin on the Peak Forest Canal.

North Derbyshire & North Cheshire Advertiser. 1 December 1882

Bugsworth. Closing of Dolly Pit.

Owing to the expiration of the lease, the above pit has ceased working. In consequence, the persons employed on the pit bank, the engineers and banksmen, and a few of the carters and others, agreed to have a farewell gathering, and on Wednesday they improvised a dinner in a very plain way, and which was served in the pit cabin. A conversation followed respecting bygone days and many changes which they had seen. The closing of the pit is rather unfortunate for the people of Bugsworth, as they have been supplied by coal pits for many generations.

The enginehouse stood in a derelict condition until 1975/76 when work commenced to convert it into the house that stands today. The boiler once stood at the left side of the main building with a chimney behind.