Many of the smaller pumping engines used in the tin and copper mines found final resting places amongst the china clay mines of the St Austell district.  Here they were used to pump clay slurry up into settling and drying ponds from the bottom of the pits, usually via a drainage adit and shallow pumping shaft.  Pictured left is one such pumping engine, at the Gunheath clay works near Stenalees.  This early photograph shows a plain and rather spartan engine house with few windows, representing a final purely utilitarian era for the Cornish beam engine.  A far cry from the days when this technology drained the mines of the world's largest copper and tin mining district.

Pictured at left is the distinctive Cornish engine house at Wheal Jenkin at the head of the Marke Valley to the west of Linkinhorne.  This photograph is unusual in that it shows the accompanying stack, something not seen in later, more usual, photographs after the stack either collapsed or was destroyed, as seen in the image to the right.

Pictured at left is Wheal Friendly on the western side of Trevaunance Coombe at St Agnes during the early years of the last Century (1900s).  In the background is probably the engine house of Polberro mine on Turnavore Shaft.  

At left, Allen's Shaft at the Botallack Mine around 1909.  This shaft was reopened in recent years by Geevor Limited in an attempt to define additional tin resources to  lengthen the mine life of the local Geevor operation.  Sadly, insufficient economically viable reserves were identified. The new headframe is shown at left.

South Crofty was the last operational tin mine in Cornwall and closed in March 1998 although mining activity has resumed above the water table.  It is situated in the heart of the Cornish tin mining district of Camborne - Redruth.  The site is home to much that is synonymous with Cornish Mining heritage and the preservation of this is vitally important.  

A key site at South Crofty is the engine house at Robinson's Shaft (above left) with its preserved engine.  The New Cook's Kitchen shaft in 1951 is shown (above right) with the top of the cylinder and indoors end of the beam shown at left.  The preserved pumping engine house at Robinson's Shaft is now one focus of the newly launched Camborne, Pool and Redruth Regeneration Scheme.