Dave Ambler's Cornish Engine House Images

Early in 2006 Dave Ambler wrote and offered me some images of a number of engine houses from East Cornwall, specifically from the Minions area, north of Caradon Hill.

The Phoenix area is one of my old stamping grounds and it's a real pleasure to be able to post some of Dave's excellent images on this page. I hereby acknowledge Dave's generosity in supplying these and several other images.

At left, the distinctive engine house at Houseman's shaft, South Phoenix Mine, out on the moor to the northwest of Minions.

At some stage in the past the engine house was obviously converted into a residence with the bob-wall looking as if it was closed off and converted to two windows and the distinctive chimney stack added in what must be a unique feature.

According to Dines, the mine was last prospected in the period 1907 - 1908 but no production resulted from the exploratory work.

A couple of images of Wheal Phoenix, showing the distinctive engine house with the rather unusual square section stack base.

At right, the heavily overgrown nature of the pumping engine house and ancillary buildings is apparent.

At left is the very derelict engine house of Wheal Pollard, on the moor to the west of Minions, active between 1850 and 1865, according to Dines.

At right, Bellingham's shaft engine house at Wheal Jenkin on the northern flank of Caradon Hill, a rather sturdier (and more recent) example of an engine house.

At left, Wheal Langford, a short distance northeast of Callington. The mine was relatively small but produced a range of commodities, zinc, copper, lead and silver and even manganese, none in very large quantities. The mine was last worked about 1890.