Side view of Count House Pontrhydygroes

Description

The Count House was the Lisburne Mine pay office where local lead miners received their wages at Pontrhydygroes.

The former 'count house' to the Lisburne Mines, probably dates from after 1834, and is sited just by the entrance to the Lefel Fawr, the great level that connected the various mines on high ground to the south. An old photograph shows the accounting house facing over a platform with rail track to a crushing-house set below the terrace to a lofted outbuilding opposite, and a house or office backing onto the bank by the entry to the level.
A building on the Tithe map of 1843 is marked house and smithy, occupied by John Taylor, owned by the Earl of Lisburne, but appears to be much smaller than the present day structure. The adjacent land is marked as 'Level Fawr and mine works and sheds'. The Lefel Fawr was commenced in 1785 by John Propert to drain the Logaulas mine, one of the most ancient workings of the region, but took 30 years to reach the vein, which was not finally exploited until 1824 under the Williams family. John Taylor, (1779-1863) the leading mining engineer of the era, took over the lease in 1834 with Matthew Francis as manager of the Lisburne mines (dismissed 1840).