The Clive Shaft was sunk between 1842 & 1845 and ceased operating in 1883. It was originally equipped with a 50-inch (cylinder diameter) hydraulic pumping engine, constructed at John Taylor’s foundry in Rhydymwyn and installed in an engine house underground.

The water to power the engine was conveyed by a new leat constructed in 1844. See The Leats. The final stage of the watercourse was an aqueduct of cast iron pipes which took water to the engine from a small reservoir. 

In 1862 the hydraulic engine was replaced by a steam engine with a 100 inch diameter cylinder. The beam, which projected from the building, weighed 85 tons and had a stroke of 10 ft. The engine was built by the Haigh Foundry in Wigan and housed in a new engine house built on the surface near to the shaft - the Clive Engine House.
There were 7 “egg-end” boilers in an adjacent boiler house which also powered a horizontal steam engine for winding at another shaft.

The engine was in operation until the mine closed in 1884. The engine was sold to Westminster Colliery, Gwersyllt in 1885.