Wheeler & Co. Reconstituted Stone (Timsbury)

 interesting place, building materials shop, coal industry

Conygre Pit (later Upper Conygre) was sunk in 1791, the first of the 'Timsbury Collieries'.
The shaft was 8ft in diam'., sunk to a depth of 1038ft. Interestingly, the pit was operated throughout under the autocratic Victorian-style of management, being run under the original and by then convoluted 1791 Partnership ( with shares being, for example, diluted to the 7/500 0f 10/64 share held by a Miss Sarah Mogg (ancestor of the MP elected in 2010!)
Disposal was almost entirely by road until the sinking of Lower Conygre to the south 1858, when small coal was transferred there and onto the Somerset Coal Canal.
Little of significance had changed at Upper Conygre during its life, with most of any improvements / modernisation centred on Lower Conygre.
It proved to be the last working pit in Timsbury in 1914 when Lower Conygre was flooded, but this situation only pertained until 1916 when 'Upper' finally closed for good.
For many years, after the mine had closed, Wheeler and Co produced concrete blocks using the slag, ( waste material from coal mining, hence "slag heap") as aggregate, many of the houses built locally are constructed using these blocks. Wheelers have now ceased production on this site and the buildings have been demolished.


www.wheelerandcoltd.co.uk/about/
Ref:- Down & Warrington - History of the Somerset Coalfield / Radstock Museum.