Engine House And Capstan Plat At Sw 598265, Old Shaft, Trewavas Mine

The engine house and capstan plat at Trewavas Mine, located at SW 598265, is a ruin of a beam engine house built around 1834 for a pumping engine, alongside an adjoining capstan plat. The structure features a dressed coarsed granite bob wall, with the rest made of granite rubble, dressed granite quoins, jambstones, and wooden lintels. The engine house has a rectangular plan with a thicker bob wall and a small plug doorway on the seaward side. There is a very tall opening on the rear landward side, designed for the insertion of the beam and boiler from the steep cliff slope. The machinery, floors, framed wall, gable over the bob wall, and roof structure have been removed, and the rear gable has fallen. Each wing wall has a ground floor doorway and first floor windows, with the right-hand wall also featuring a ground floor window. Originally, the building had three floors and is situated on a ledge halfway up a steep cliff, with the shaft directly in front and the front left corner built over a nearly 100-foot sheer drop to the sea. The capstan plat is located to the left of the engine house, retained by a battered granite rubble wall that is serpentine in shape. Within the plat is a masonry-lined pit for holding the capstan drum, which leads to a masonry-lined trench where the rope ran out to the pulley at the base of the sheer legs over the shaft. This manually operated capstan was used for lowering heavy pumpwork down the shaft. Higher up the cliff to the northwest is a horse whim plat used for hauling ore trucks up a tramway. Wheal Trewavas was a copper mine that operated from around 1834 to 1846. In 1844, the sea reportedly broke into some of the workings just before a tributer's dinner was scheduled to be held underground. This site is noted for its spectacular setting in Cornwall, and the capstan plat pit and trench are recognized as some of the best preserved in the region, according to Kenneth Brown.