27. Walker Fan House and Drift

The Walker, or Institute fan house at Chatterley Whitfield is first depicted on a plan of 1958 and it contained an electrically-driven fan. The Walker Brothers' steel 'Indestructible’ fan, a direct descendant of the Guibal fan, was patented in 1887 and was a double-inlet type with eight blades, set in a spiral casing with a ventilation shaft or evaseé. Up to 100,000 cubic feet of air per minute could be drawn from the workings through the fan drift and fresh air naturally replaced this through the Hesketh and Winstanley 'downcast' shafts. During the late C20 the fan drift to Chatterley's Walker fan house was partly converted to form 'sham' offices for museum visitors. Situated between the Institute and Platt shafts, the fan extracted some 43,000 cubic metres of air per minute, which entered the mine via the Hesketh and Winstanley shafts and exited through the evasee up the Platt and Institute shafts. It is estimated that the air travelled 37 miles once it entered the underground workings. Listed: Grade II