Summary

This is one of the earliest-documented mines in the area, Wheal Edward Bounds having been granted in 1775 to Richard Oats, tinner of St Just by Elizabeth Usticke of Penzance.

Identification Images (0)

Most Recent Monitoring

None Recorded

Monument Types

Description

This is one of the earliest-documented mines in the area, Wheal Edward Bounds having been granted in 1775 to Richard Oats, tinner of St Just by Elizabeth Usticke of Penzance. Little is known of these operations which probably came to little, since the bounds were re-let twenty years later with Kenidjack CW Bounds 'from the Sea on the North sofar East as to adjoin with the Tenement of Truthwall sofar South and East as to adjoin with the enclosed land of the Tenement of Kendjack and so far West as Wheal Edward Load and Twenty Fathoms to the West of the said Load ... and also throughout all the aforesaid Tin Bounds called Wheal Edward Bounds adjoining and lying to the South of Kenidjack Cliff Bounds ...- (Noall 1973.) Wheal Edward was next recorded as commencing production in 1821 (Dines 1956) and was in operation until either 1859 (Collins 1912) or 1856 (Reid and Flett 1907), re-opening in 1863 (Dines 1956). Symons marked an engine house at SW 3595 3278 with another unidentifiable structure just to its east. Ordish (1967) includes a photograph of the site. Wheal Edward must have started as an outcrop working on lodes in the rear of the eponymous zawn. Old Wheal Edward shaft is at SW 3596 3278, and was accessed by an adit on the cliff face below (access to which is via a narrow path over the cliff edge). The shaft is truly massive, and surrounded by a stone and earth collar wall of a size probably unparalleled anywhere else in Cornwall. Within the collared area can be seen fragments of stonework on the eastern edge of the shaft. No engine house was ever recorded here (though Symons' map shows a structure adjacent to the east side of the shaft). On the cliff slope is a broad terrace, approached by a well-made trackway which can be traced back to the dressing floors. At the rear of this terrace are the possible remains of a rectangular structure (SW 3598 3278) of unknown function, whilst on the slopes above (SW 3596 3276) is evidence for costeaning trenches. Wheal Edward Incline Shaft is at SW 3603 3271, Set amidst a large area of disturbed dumps. The shaft is choked at no great depth from its mouth, but given the angle at which the shaft runs, this chokage may be only partial in character. This shaft was re-collared in 1996 and the majority of the Landfill site which had built up around it lowered, landscaped and re-seeded. The remainder of the site is likely to be scheduled for attention in late 1997. The dressing floors run westwards from the stamps engine house at SW 3618 3282. The stamps engine is a prominent feature beside the coast path. To its north-west is a near-circular levelled area which may have been the site for a capstan, whilst to the south-east of the loadings were the site of the stamps. The house is quite large (9.5m x 5.5m in plan, 11.5m high to the wall plate) relative to the small (28" diameter cylinder) that it housed. It was constructed of granite rubble masonry throughout, shaped blocks being used in the shell of the building only for quoins and the framings to wall openings. No tie rods seem to have been incorporated into the build. Like the neighbouring pumping engine house, it seems to have been plain and utilitarian in appearance, and all Window openings had plain timber lintels. There were windows on the lower and middle floors on the offside wall - the lower window being behind the bob wall, the upper on the centreline of the building. On the nearside there was only one window - at the centre of the wall at upper floor level (photographic evidence). Near the centre of the wall at ground level was the door from the engine house into the boiler house - a slightly unusual location. The cylinder door in the rear elevation has an arched head in three courses of flush-set bricks in header courses. The remainder of the wall is rather unusual - in place of the expected lights to the upper two floors, there is only a large rectangular opening (width greater than height) with its head at the level of the wall plate on the side walls. This is spanned by a timber above which the gable is of markedly different masonry - not only in appearance but also in thickness. This opening has all the appearance of a bob opening. No back bob was recorded here, and the Ordnance Survey (1st edition 1:2500 maps) show a small roofed structure attached to this wall. There is no trace of a shaft at this point, and the footings of a building corresponding to that shown on the Ordnance Survey just survive. It is feasible that there was a back bob working a short lift of pumps to supply water for the dressing floors (or perhaps there was intended to be one), but it may simply be that this is an unusual window, the stonework above being, perhaps a rebuild or adaptation. In the front wall is the plug door with its arched head in three courses of brick. The crown of the arch has a small area of infill, again in brick. Flanking the plug door at plinth level are two small rectangular openings. One must be the slot for the link motion from the crank. Although the engine would have been double acting there are no traces of the additional bob trunnion anchorages which would be expected in such an installation. Internally, rubble from the collapse of parts of the walls and stack obscures much floor detail, though the bedstone is visibly still in place. Evidence in the rear wall (three large timber sockets) makes it clear that the middle floor joists were set longitudinally, but there are no corresponding pockets in the rear face of the bob wall. The upper floor was also supported on longitudinal timbers, two of which (the spring beams) were extended forward in the usual fashion to form the supports for the bob plat. The side walls elevations are peppered with putlog holes, many of which were infilled once construction was complete, before being plastered over. A series of holes flanking the base of the plug door opening probably relate to the supports for the floor covering the cataract pit. The condensate drain pipe exited through a small opening in the nearside wall of the cataract pit. In common with some other engine houses in West Penwith (for example the Crowns pumping engine), the chimney stack was built partly inside the house, being constructed within the nearside rear corner. The associated boiler house (10.0m x 3.3m in plan) was set along the nearside of the house, and projected to its rear. Its roof was almost certainly a combination of lean-to and gabled. Much of the interior of this structure has been filled with debris from the collapse of the adjacent wall, though some sections of intact wall survive. The chimney survives only within the house, and all of its upper section has gone. The loadings lie to the front of the engine house. Rather curiously, although there are a pair of flywheel slots in the loadings, only one flywheel is shown installed in the archive photograph. Although the condenser housing is visible immediately in front of the plug door opening, there appears not to have been a cut out for the crank in the upper surface of the loadings. It is possible that the timbers supporting the crank bearing blocks were sufficiently massive that the crank was raised above the level of the loading. At the front end of the loadings between the flywheel slots is a small masonry plinth which resembles those at other stamps engines where a small auxiliary bob was worked to provide water for dressing. It may be that water was obtained in this way, though it should be noted that no feature of this kind is visible in the available view (though it might have been present). The relatively short stamps installation extended to the nearside of the loading (28 head of stamps are visible in the photograph, though the space available today looks considerably shorter, and the site may have been modified. It is possible that the photograph has been miss-identified). On the offside of the loadings is a large circular revetted platform (5.0m diameter top, revetted outer face is 9.0m diameter). This was the site for the upright axle winding drum which wound from the distant Incline Shaft before the construction of the Cargodna whim engine house upslope (see 92744). One of the most dramatic features of the site is the circular pit for the sixty foot diameter round buddle unique to Cornwall, though present levels of vegetation reduces its full impact is to most visitors. Along the slope are a series of rectangular settling tanks (to SW 3606 3277) with stone facings. The sites of other ponds he on the slopes above the buddle at SW 3618 3279, together with a sub-square pond (probably originally fed via a leat from the engine pond to the south-east of West Wheal Owles). The floors at Wheal Edward are rather limited in extent, but have rather more potential for public access and interpretation. This will necessitate the clearance of some scrub vegetation, the rationalisation of paths and tracks across the site (some of which have been created by horse riders, causing damage to earthwork components), and limited consolidation of walls. Ideally, the clearance of vegetation should be followed by detailed archaeological survey of the site, coupled with documentary research. In 1989, Geevor Mine Plc notified Cornwall County Council of its intention to take up a number of existing permissions for the removal of mine waste dumps, including that on the coastal side of the stamps engine house and the large dumps backing Wheal Edward Incline Shaft (Planning Reference P/0784/R). CAU requested that the dump adjacent to the engine house should not be re-worked given its proximity to archaeologically significant structures, but raised no objections to the reworking of the Wheal Edward Incline Shaft spoil dump. Work was scheduled to take place in April/June 1990 and although some exploratory sampling was certainly undertaken, the bulk of the waste dump remained untouched as a result of the closure of Geevor Mine in 1991.

References

Designations

Other Statuses and References

Associated Events

Associated Finds

None Recorded

Related Records

None Recorded