AS the Llywernog Silver-Lead Mine prepares to open its doors to the public for its first Heritage Weekend, Timewatch has been looking back at its history.

It dates back to the 1740s and closed for good in 1910.

There used to be an impressive 50-foot waterwheel which was a great and well-valued landmark, along with the grand mine buildings which can also be seen in the photograph and are still standing today.

When the waterwheel got taken away for scrap in 1953 people living in the area were apparently very upset, and it was reported in the media that it was going to be missed by locals and also the ‘thousands of visitors’ travelling on the road to Aberystwyth during the summer.

With the help of members of the Welsh Mines Preservation Trust and Cambrian Mines Trust, much work has been going on to restore the mining machinery and other historical features around the site, some of which will be running on the Heritage Weekend for the first time since they were used for mining.

The weekend is called Llywernog:1870.

“We’ve picked the date 1870 as a focus for the weekend, as it is the time when John Balcombe (also owner of the Queen’s Hotel on the seafront) managed the mine and built the yellow-bricked main mine building that we have here today, and as such we have been working to restore features around the site to how they were at this time,” a spokesperson for the event explained.

“We’d like to invite all of the local community to come and see the work that has been going on to bring machinery and history back to life, and to learn about what is such a significant part of our local history. The aim is to make it an interactive and fun weekend, and a great opportunity to welcome people to the historical site."

The Heritage Weekend takes place on 24 and 25 March.

Read the full feature and see more pictures of the mine in this week’s south editions, on sale on Wednesday