Pithead Baths

Radstock

District: Somerset
Country: England
Colliery owners: Somerset Collieries, Ltd.
Opening date: 20.3.40
Pithead Baths Capacity (number of men): 396
Pithead Baths surviving? Yes

The pithead baths at Ludlow Colliery in Radstock were officially opened on Saturday 30th March 1940. They were opened by Sir Frank Beauchamp, the managing director of Somerset Collieries Ltd., who owned the colliery. The deeds were handed over to Frank by A.J. Saise on behalf of the Miners’ Welfare Commission who were the architects responsible for the design.

The Commission was formerly known as the Miners’ Welfare Committee (it became a commission in 1939). The committee was established in 1921 and was responsible for the programme of building pithead baths at collieries across Britain from 1926 until the early 1950s. It was initially led by the architect John Henry Forshaw but he was succeeded in 1939 by Cecil George Kemp. Forshaw had split the office into a North and South division – the South division (in which Radstock falls) was headed by the architect A.J. Saise. These divisions were then divided into groups to cover the counties, each with an architect at its head.

A.J. Saise (the head of the MWC’s South division) handed over the deeds for Ludlow, but the project architect for Ludlow’s pithead baths appears to have been W.M. Taylor.

The baths were designed to accommodate 396 men and contained a showering area, two sets of lockers (one dirty and one clean) plus ancillary spaces, and a canteen – it was quite a small installation.

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