Engine House At Sw623295, West Wheal Metal And Flow Or Gold Hill Tin Mine

The engine house at West Wheal Metal and Flow or Gold Hill tin mine is a disused beam engine house built in 1881. It features walls made of killas and granite rubble, with dressed granite quoins and jambstones, a granite ashlar bob wall, round brick arches, and timber lintels. The building has a rectangular single cell plan, with a thicker bob wall on the west side. It stands three storeys tall over a basement, but the floors and machinery have been removed.

The west bob wall has a large central round-arched opening on the ground floor, which is blind above, and the former weatherboarded second floor and gable have been removed. The east wall has a similar ground floor opening, while the gable has fallen. The side walls feature ground floor openings with granite lintels and first and second floor openings spanned by wooden lintels.

This engine house once housed a rotative beam engine with a cylinder diameter of about 30 inches. It was used to drive a set of stamps and to draw water for dressing purposes from the adit level via a shaft at the rear using a 'back-bob'. The machinery operated for several years to treat the large waste dumps from Wheal Vor and Wheal Metal, although underground operations were minimal. The engine house is of technical interest as it is one of only two in Cornwall that clearly show where the back bob was mounted. A fine detached chimney is located a short distance to the southeast, and remnants of a former underground flue leading to this chimney still exist.