The Cornish Engine House

Wherever the Cornish miner and engineer travelled in the search for metal during the 19th and early 20th Centuries he left his mark in the form of a distinctive architecture, practical and productive in its era but now so often seen as capturing the romance and spirit of those pioneering days.  Arguably the building which most embodies the spirit and inventiveness which characterised the world's best practitioners of deep metal mining is the Cornish engine house.  Ruins of these buildings may be found wherever the Cornish miner toiled.  Cornwall has many of course, most in various states of disrepair, as does neighbouring Devon.  Derbyshire and the Irish Republic are also home to several examples.  South Australia has several fine examples, notably at Burra and Moonta, former home to so many Cornish miners.  This brief review cannot hope to do justice to this icon of 19th Century Cornish mining technology but the photos may be of some interest.  A few links relating to the Cornish beam engine and mining history in general are given at the bottom of the page.  Further photographs generously supplied by the Trevithick Society may be found on the accompanying web page.

 

At the end of August 2005 I was fortunate to receive a few photographs of engine houses in Spain from Spanish geologist Antonio Cabrera.  I have put these photographs on a separate page.

 

Karen Adair kindly sent some photographs of the East Wheal Rose and East Pool area in 2005 and it has taken me some time to get them onto the page. Of particular interest was a photograph of the restored Wheal Rose engine House, shown towards the bottom of this page. Since then I have also been contacted by Steve and June Eagle, the owners of the restored engine house, who have very kindly supplied other material for display both here and in a photo album on my newly acquired Phanfare site. Engine House Cottages is available for rent and is ideally situated a short distance from the Camborne-Redruth area, the centre of Cornwall's once extensive mining industry. To download the Engine House Cottages brochure click here (Page 1) and here (Page 2).

 

In early 2006 Dave Ambler generously supplied some fine images of engine houses from East Cornwall. These have been put on a separate page while those photos and numerous other photos taken by Dave Ambler have been loaded into a photo album on the Phanfare site in an attempt to get around the rather restrictive size limits imposed by Bigpond. More recently, Dave has also supplied some photographs of the Hingston Down engine house undergoing restoration. These have been stored in a separate album. It is becoming increasingly  apparent that I may soon have to migrate to a new ISP with more generous storage capacities.

 

During the final years of the Cornish tin and copper mining industry many pumping engines found final resting places amongst the china clay mines of the St Austell district where they were used to pump the clay slurry up into drying ponds from the bottom of the pits.  To the left is one such pumping engine, at the Parkandillack clay works near St Dennis.  This was partly restored to run on compressed air in the late 1970s by a number of employees of the English China Clays company.  The photo sums up well the grey tones of this world-famous clay producing area and the remains of one of the distinctive sand waste heaps can be seen in the background.  As usual, a cloudy Cornish sky forms a typical backdrop to this spring scene.

A fine example of a Cornish engine house is this one at the Wheal Ellen copper mine north of Redruth, near Porthtowan in Cornwall.  This house is renowned for the castellated stack, a rare touch of artistry in what was essentially a purely functional piece of design and architecture.  

Recent photographs of this engine house which have been published on the web show that the upper part of the front wall of the house has collapsed in recent years.  This photograph was taken in the late 1970s.  The need for preservation of these buildings is of growing importance as nature and time continue to take their toll.

One such restored house is this fine example of a winding engine, the Mitchell's shaft whim engine at Pool, midway between Camborne and Redruth, Cornwall, part of the East Pool and Agar tin mine.  

This photograph, from a postcard of the early 1980s captures the classic lines against a rare blue sky backdrop.  This is one of a pair of engine houses now restored by the National Trust, the other being Taylor's shaft pumping engine house a few hundred metres to the north across the main road.  Since this photograph was taken, the boiler house, formerly on the left of the engine house, has been rebuilt. 

For more information go to the Trevithick Trust's web page.

 

Another engine house (restored by the Trevithick Society) is the winding engine house at the Levant tin and copper mine near St Just on the Land's End peninsula. 

The winding engine house is the one on the left, the roofless house being the former pumping engine house for the Levant workings which extended some distance out to sea.  These workings were reopened by the neighbouring Geevor Mine in the late 1970s and the small headframe erected by Geevor over the whim shaft can be clearly seen.  

Wheal Kitty at St Agnes on the north coast of Cornwall is rather unusual for still being partly surrounded by a number of ancillary mine buildings which have survived from the most recent era of mining.  The oldest photo (top left) dates from the late 1970s when the sheds were mainly used for storage.  The buildings now house a range of light industries and much of the site has been redeveloped and buried under a bitumen car park. Wheal Kitty is but one of a number of fine engine houses in the St Agnes area, including Wheal Friendly and Polberro. In more recent news it has been announced that the building is to be restored and re-roofed - great news. 

The Cornish Mining Industry - Recent Years

Today, little remains of the once great Cornish mining industry. The last operational tin mine, South Crofty, finally fell victim to declining commodity prices and the ever-increasing costs of carrying out mining in an over regulated environment, following the sad path taken by Geevor and Wheal Jane.  Numerous Cornish miners were forced to seek alternative employment.  Attempts to revive South Crofty came to nothing for a few years although renewed attempts to recommence mining at South Crofty are being pursued by Baseresult Holdings Ltd. Their web-site chronicles the current mining efforts at South Crofty. 

Shown at left is the Victory Shaft headframe at Geevor mine, a photo taken in the early 1980s. The Geevor site is now run as a museum.

 

At right, in autumn tones, one of the pumping engine houses of the South Caradon copper mine, one of the world's largest copper mines during the 19th Century hey-day of the Cornish mining industry.

I would welcome any further images of Cornish Engine houses for future inclusion on these pages.  Preferably taken on a better camera than my old instamatic !

 

Moonta & Wallaroo, South Australia

The Moonta - Wallaroo district on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula has one of the finest collections of abandoned engine houses in the southern hemisphere.  Seen here are, at left and above left, the Hughes pumping engine house at Moonta Mines, above centre, the pumping engine house at Harvey's shaft, Wallaroo Mines and, above right, the unusual Richman's engine house at Moonta Mines.  From a photographer's perspective the clear blue skies, so typical of Australia's Little Cornwall are a far cry from the grey overcast skies which characterise the home of the miners who emigrated in their thousands to seek a new life in the colonies as the Cornish lodes became exhausted.

Richman's engine house at Moonta (pictured above right) has been a subject of considerable research over the years by Roger Baden-Bradford of South Australia. I am indebted to Roger for kindly supplying the various plans and figures below. Roger points out that Richman's house was very unusual in that it provided crushing, winding and pumping services, according to Roger, the only one if its kind in Australia. Also shown below are three of Roger's photographs. From left to right; Richman's engine house during renovations in the 1980s; Richman's engine house and plant remains from the tailings dump and finally the North Rhine copper mine engine house in 1985.  North Rhine engine house contained a bull engine. 

Roger Baden-Bradford has spent many years researching South Australia mining districts and has made numerous models of South Australian mining equipment and installations such as poppet heads and engine houses at a range of scales. Check out Roger's web page - here.

Numerous books concerning the migration of the Cornish miner and his technology to the copper industry in South Australia are available, among them:

At left, the restored engine house at Wheal Rose between Redruth and St Agnes. The work on this mill engine was only completed in recent years. Also on the site is holiday accommodation in restored mine outbuildings. The restoration work has been sympathetically undertaken and further details may be found on the accompanying web-page (to be completed).

At right is the massive engine house of the East Wheal Rose mine near Newlyn East, just north of the A30. This building housed one of the largest pumping engines used in Cornwall, a massive 100" engine.

Both photos courtesy of Karen Adair, with thanks. 

 

 

Engine House Links

The Cadia Cornish Engine House on the Cornish Association of New South Wales site and additional detail on recent restoration work.

Charles Winpenny occasionally features excellent quality images of Cornish engine houses on his Cornwall cam website.

In the same vein, Ian Woolcock has two excellent sites showcasing his photographs of Cornwall. The first, Views of Cornwall contains over two thousand photographs of Cornwall and the second, Cornwall 365, offers new photos of Cornwall 365 days a year.

David Sallery's web site focussing on the Slate Industry of North and Mid Wales includes a number of photographs of the Cornish Beam engine at the Dorothea Quarry, Dyffryn Nantlle. 

David Worth's Images of South African Industrial Archaeology include a photo of the engine house at O'kiep in the northern Cape Province.

John Manley's South Caradon web site.

Roland Wagener's Cornish Steam Engine Pages.

One of the few engine houses which has been sympathetically converted is 'Wheal Henrietta', shaft pumping engine house at Fowey Consols.  In June 2004 this B & B establishment was apparently for sale. 

Visit the Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland's site for the appeal for restoration of the man-engine house at Allihies.  This restoration work has recently been completed and the Mining Heritage Trust has turned its attention to the engine houses at Tankardstown.  A couple of photos of the Tankardstown engine houses near Knockmahon on the south coast of County Waterford can be found here.  Surprisingly this 'classic' mine site currently has only scanty coverage on the web - unless someone can suggest some other links.  

David Sallery's web site on the Welsh slate industry contains a number of pictures of the Cornish Beam engine at Dorothea Quarry, Dyffryn Nantlle which is still in a relatively good condition.

There are numerous photographs of the Prince of Wales engine house near Tintagel in North Cornwall on this site. This has been partially stabilised and restored in recent years.

One of the less well known and more remote engine houses is that of the Copper Point Mine on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Isles. 

Heron's Reef historic gold diggings site has a photo of the Duke of Cornwall engine house at Fryerstown in Victoria. This looks to be in fairly good condition.

Some Mining History Links

The Trevithick Society is an organisation dedicated to the industrial archaeology of Cornwall.  The Society is named after Richard Trevithick, a Cornishman whose name is synonymous with the development of the steam engine.  The Trevithick Society has been kind enough to supply a number of images for incorporation on this web-site and their generosity is gratefully acknowledged.

Distinct from the Trevithick Society is The Trevithick Trust, a charitable Trust formed by the Cornwall County Council, Carrick, Kerrier and Penwith District Councils, Camborne School of Mines, and The National Trust, with support from the Institute of Cornish Studies, The Trevithick Society, English Heritage and individual members of the Trust. The objective of the Trust is 'to identify, preserve, protect, manage and interpret for the benefit of the people of Cornwall and the public at large throughout the world whatever of the historical, architectural and engineering heritage may exist in the form of buildings, artefacts, documents, records and land associated with Cornish mining and engineering and related industries and activities.' 

Peter Claughton's Mining History pages.

Roger Burt's Mining History Network, a particularly comprehensive site. 

Geoff Treseder's St Just Mining District site.

The Carn Brea Mining Society's home page. 

The East Cornwall Mining History Association's web site.

Moorebooks, new and used mining and caving books.

Adrian Pearce's comprehensive British Mining Database and associated web-pages:

The Peak District Mines Historical Society.

The Trounson-Bullen Collection web site.

The interesting Subterranea Britannica site, some mining history coverage, in particular the Kit Hill Excelsior Tunnel page.

Another site, Mine Explorer, with a heavy Welsh focus but still worth a look. 

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(c) Ian Hodkinson.  Last updated January 2007.