Last wooden winding wheel hauled back into place at Wakefield’s mining museum

As the newly restored wooden winding wheel was hoisted back into place at Caphouse Colliery near Wakefield, those in charge admitted that not even they knew how it had survived.

But after a Government-funded restoration programme, it will serve as a bridge to the past for a new generation of visitors.

Timber headstocks such as the one at Caphouse – which is now home to the National Coal Mining Museum – were outlawed in 1911, though not retrospectively.

By the time the pit closed after the miners’ strike of 1984 it was probably the only one in the Yorkshire coalfield not to have been replaced by a steel lattice structure.

“Why this one wasn’t done as well is a very good question,” said the museum’s mine director, Shaun McLoughlin.

“What we do know is that it dates from between 1905 and 1911, which was when new legislation was passed. All new headgear after that date had to be made of metal.”

It has taken six months to replace the rotting pine in the 10ft diameter wheel, which used to haul the rope-drawn cage that transported miners and materials up and down the 460ft shaft from the surface to the coal seam. However, its purpose since Caphouse reopened as a museum has been ornamental and symbolic, not functional.

But Mr McLoughlin said it was a structure of such historic importance that when he took up his post four years ago he set in train a rescue project, bringing in conservation specialists to preserve its historical integrity and restore it to its former glory.

The museum director, Jenny Layfield, said its restoration had “not only prevented the further degradation of a historically important structure but opened up new ways to tell the story of mining”.

The wheel is now capable of being turned by the old steam winding engine, as it was in its working days, for demonstrations to visitors, Ms Layfield said – but for the moment it would serve as a beacon to welcome visitors back to the museum when it reopens on August 5. .

The restoration job had been a huge undertaking, Mr McLoughlin said, and not least for the crane operator, who shortly after dawn yesterday had to position the giant wheel exactly on to two supporting beams around 30ft off the ground.

Such headstocks were the “welcome signs” that told returning wanderers from each of the old pit villages that they were home.

Their development before the industrial revolution arose from the need to exploit coal seems deep underground, and the first winding wheels were horizontal and horse-drawn.

Pitch pine headstocks like that at Caphouse – which is now Grade II* listed – were typical of those in the late 19th century, before it was discovered that the wood was prone to rotting.

Less than half a mile away, the pit head at Hope Colliery, which led down to the same seam, was a steel job. But elsewhere, some private pit owners got around the concerns by building steel frames over the wooden ones.

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