Old Mounting Bolt Stamps Engine House Luckett New Consols Mine Cornwall

Title

Old Mounting Bolt Stamps Engine House Luckett New Consols Mine Cornwall

Artist

Richard Brookes

Medium

Photograph

Description

An old weathered and rusty iron mounting bolt almost hidden in the undergrowth. This poignant relic survives on the ruins of the part-demolished and overgrown stamps engine house loadings at the abandoned Luckett New Consols Mine site in Cornwall, SW England UK.

The bolt was probably used to secure some of the steam beam engine powered machinery used in the ore extraction and processing operations. It is likely this was part of the 36" stamps engine house that used a Cornish stamps battery. This machinery processed ore for the dressing yard with its 12 buddles used for washing and sorting the ore. It also powered a pump to provide water from a shaft in front of the building for the ore dressing floors. The metal plates of the wooden pump rod were still visible through the shaft cover on this visit. The building was built circa the 1880s but was sadly dynamited and demolished in 1968.

It is believed that tin streaming was taking place here next to Luckett stream in medieval times prior to 1542 and this practice continued into the post medieval period. After these operations had declined mining was once again by the 1760s. Copper was the main ore mined at this time.

Mining at Luckett continued under different names throughout the C19th, namely: Pre 1844 to 1857 was Great Wheal Martha then New Wheal Martha; 1857-1867 New Great Consols. Then the operation amalgamated with West Great Consols to form New Consols Tin and Arsenic Works. In 1874 it became the New Great Consols Silver and Arsenic Works Limited, which continued to operate until debts forced closure in 1877. The mine was abandoned until World War I when waste dumps were briefly reworked. In 1946 a new company, New Consols, refurbished the mine and produced tin and tungsten until closure in 1953.

The mine was classified as poly-metallic, producing a range of ores including copper, lead, silver, arsenic, tungsten and tin in addition to small amounts of gold.

This and similar sites nearby played a hugely important role historically in the development of engineering techniques and technology before and during the industrial revolution. As a result such technology, expertise and manpower was exported around the globe. Consequently UNESCO has created a World Heritage Mining Landscape of Cornwall and West Devon (no. 1215) to recognise and protect such areas.

Uploaded

November 21st, 2020

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