Building Engine Houses

Building Engine Houses

During the 4 years of the Cost Book two new engine houses and a house for a steam whim were built at the shafts. Each detail of the building expense is listed in the Cost Book, and in my "Study of a Mine Cost Book" I have shown these in tabular form, but unfortunately this will not fit into a web page. I will therefore attempt to summarise the main events.

New Engine Shaft

In the first month of the Cost Book in October 1855 there is an entry which states that two men were taking out an engine at Penhale Mine for which they were paid £6.50. This was Penhale Consols lead mine near Cubert which is roughly 20 miles north east from Illogan. According to Mr Kenneth Brown, author of "Exploring Cornish Mines" series this engine was advertised for sale in June 1855 and had a cylinder diameter of 60 inches.

During December 1855 the dismantling of the engine was under the supervision of Capt. Champion of Wheal Agar who was charged £2.50 for five weeks board and lodging at Cubert . The road to Penhale had to be repaired in places and carriage and horses was supplied by George Sara for transporting the engine, for which he charged £77.00

From January to March 1856 the engine house was being built and in April the cylinder had been bedded in and the roof of the house slated. A company called Hocking & Loam were the engineers supervising the installation of the engine. While this was happening on surface the shaft sinking below had reached the 36 fathom level. In addition a pare of 9 men had started 'cutting and dividing down shaft from surface' which meant that the shaft had to be widened for a skip road in place of kibble drawing.

In May 1856 Capt. Champion went to an auction at Leedstown Consols and bought a Capstan and Shears for £75.17, which were transported back to Wheal Agar by George Sara. In those days it was necessary to use a capstan for equipping shafts as it provided more control in positioning pump rods and other equipment. The timber for the pump rods had already been selected in February by a carpenter, Edward Wilkins.

By July they were excavating a pit for the balance bob (see Glossary) and obtained two large stones from a local quarry costing £1 each and had them transported to the mine for £1.40 during August.

Widening and sinking the shaft continued during the autumn and into the spring and summer of 1857. The new skip compartment in the shaft, or skip road, was also being installed, and in August the capstan and shears bought at the Leedstown auction came into use. The entry in the Cost Book reads '6 men at Capstan sending down rods'(sic) for which John Hambly & Co. were paid £1.20. This work continued as well as the installation of a ladder road until the end of January 1858.

The installation of pitwork (pipes, cisterns etc for pumping) commenced during December 1857 and it appears to have been completed by July 1858. There is no recorded start up of the engine for pumping, but skip hoisting commenced in August 1858 and continued into January 1859, after which there are no further entries about it. Perhaps pumping and skip hoisting were too much at the same time for the engine.?

The total costs from the time the engine was being removed from Penhale mine in October 1855 until July 1858 amounted to £1,342.

Windstraw Shaft

Compared with New Engine Shaft the building of an engine house and installing an engine at Windstraw shaft was completed very swiftly.

By August 1858 Windstraw Shaft had been sunk to 55 fathoms and a decision taken to install an engine for the shaft. As with New Engine Shaft the small shaft also required to be widened to take a skip road. This commenced in November 1858 with two pares of 9 men each and they finished this work by the end of February 1859.

Meanwhile a second hand engine had been located at West Bassett Mines. The work of installing this engine was quickly carried out and it was put to work in April 1859. It would seem that there was a celebration for the occasion as there are two entries in the Cost Book which read 'supplies to Acc't House on putting Engine to work' (sic), amounting to £4.60. The cost of installation by Hocking & Loam was £440, making a total cost of £970, excluding the price of the engine which is not shown in the Cost Book.

New Whim & Engine House

In June 1859 work commenced for the installation of a steam whim and the building of an engine house.

The location of the shaft is not stated, but it could have been Old Whim Shaft. The steam whim itself cost £470 from Perran Foundry and a boiler bought for it from Bolenowe mine. It would seem that the management was also thinking of buying another steam whim because in September 1859 a visit was made to East Wheal Rose to examine an engine.

In November the whim was working and the total cost amounted to £662.