This is a photograph of Glyn Pits taken in 1905. There are several things the reader should note: For example, the two winding ropes, which are flat in this case ( Flat ropes of woven construction were normal in the early days of mining) One of these ropes leaves the engine house through a hole the roof, the other through a slot in the front wall between two of the three stone corbels, which were supports for the three 'Bracers' or 'Backstays' for the wooden pithead gear, this was necessary to counter the pull of the engine against the weight of the cages and ropes in the shafts. These bracers can be seen in the photograph. Note the immense size of the pithead gear in the photograph, said to be fifty feet high to the pit-head rope-wheel bearings. The distance between these headgear wheels or pulleys, limited the distance apart of the mine-shafts, which in this case, were just 31 feet centres, with the 'Down-cast' shaft, at 9 feet diameter, being the smaller of the two, and the 'Up-cast' being 11 feet diameter, under the right hand wheel. Although the shafts were 31 feet apart, this left only twenty feet separating the shaft walls. As can be seen, there are two stacks, the stack on the right was for the two Cornish boilers. These supplied steam to the beam pumping engine, while the stack on the left was for the boiler in the basement of the winder house. This stack also appears, from the configuration of the pipe-work in the basement, to have taken the exhaust steam from the vertical winder. The Logo 'E.V' on the side of the trucks stood for the 'Ebbw Vale Steel, Iron, and Coal Company'.
