The Mines of the North Cornwall Coast
by Terri Waters
Title
The Mines of the North Cornwall Coast
Artist
Terri Waters
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
In the foreground is Botallack's arsenic tunnels and the Brunton Calciner with it's chimney. In the distance can be seen West Wheal Owles and Wheal Edward engine houses.
These were mines from which tin and copper was produced from below the sea-bed, with inclined shafts and levels far beneath the waves.
The first distant engine house belongs to West Wheal Owles. The building with attached chimney stack is another pumping engine house. A steam engine powered a rocking beam mounted on the stout granite wall and which overhung the vertical shaft where it was connected to pumps; just like the arm of an old-fashioned water pump.
The furthest engine house, even more ruined, was built in 1869 and belonged to Wheal Edward. It once contained a steam engine which drove tin stamps (crushers) and also operated tin-dressing equipment in fact one of the largest round buddles in Cornwall. Buddles were conical pits into which the slurry of ore and water was fed in order to separate the heavier ore from the lighter waste.
Uploaded
November 9th, 2013
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