Fan House

The building housing the mechanical fan that drove a mine's ventilation system, usually a Guibal or Waddle-type centrifugal fan driven by a steam engine.

Historical usage

Mechanical ventilation fans began to replace furnace-based ventilation ('the furnace draught') in British mines from the 1860s, following the Belgian engineer Théophile Guibal's 1859-62 design, which enclosed the fan in a spiral volute casing and a diverging chimney to recover more of its energy as useful draught. A rival design, the open-running Waddle fan -- built by the Waddle Engineering and Fan Company of Llanelli -- dispensed with the casing and could be mounted in the open air, at some cost in efficiency (roughly 40% for a Waddle against 55-65% for a well-built Guibal). Both types remained in use well into the 20th century, some kept on as standby plant into the 1950s, and a handful of fan houses survive intact or as ruins at old mine and colliery sites.

How it worked

A large centrifugal fan, driven by a dedicated steam engine (later electric motor), was connected to the mine's upcast shaft and drew stale air up and out of the workings, pulling fresh air in through the downcast shaft to replace it. The fan house was built around the fan and its engine to protect them from weather and, in a Guibal installation, to house the spiral casing and chimney that recovered extra draught from the spinning air.

Why it was used

Mechanical fans could move far more air, far more reliably, than the older furnace-draught method (a coal fire kept burning at the bottom of the upcast shaft) -- important as mines went deeper and workings extended further from the shaft, both of which made adequate natural ventilation harder to achieve.

Risks & limitations

A fan house and its fan represented a serious capital investment and, once installed, became a single point of failure for the whole mine's ventilation -- a fan breakdown, as at Maypole Colliery in 1908, could leave a mine badly ventilated at exactly the moment (following an explosion) when good ventilation mattered most.

Images

Mines associated with this term

Included only where MineArchive's own research gives a reasonable evidential basis — not every mine where this might plausibly apply.

• Eston Ironstone Mines — North Yorkshire (surviving physical example)
  A Guibal fan house (nicknamed the 'SS Castle') survives on the hill, built for a 37-foot fan installed in 1869.
• Wynnstay Colliery — Wrexham (surviving physical example)
  The colliery's Walker Fan House is a separately Scheduled Monument alongside the winding engine house.
• Maypole Colliery — Lancashire (well documented example)
  The colliery's fan house, responsible for ventilating the whole mine, was badly damaged in the 1908 explosion.

Sources

1. (primary) Guibal fanhouse at Skelton Shaft iron mine — Historic England
2. (secondary) Waddle fan — Wikipedia

Record created: 31 August 2026 · Last researched: 31 August 2026