Engine House Killifreth (Hawke'S Shaft) At Sw 733442 Sw

The Engine House at Killifreth Mine, known as Hawke's Shaft, is a ruined structure built around 1865, with its chimney likely heightened around 1900. Constructed from granite rubble and killas, it features granite quoins, jambstones, and brick arches, with a brick upper section of the round chimney located at the northeast corner. The building has a rectangular plan with a single cell and an attached round chimney. Originally, it had three floors, and all walls remain largely intact. The thicker south bob wall reaches the second floor and has a deep dressed granite wallplate, with timber framing above that was originally covered in weatherboarding.

There is a round-headed opening on the ground floor, while the north gable wall features a similar brick round-arched opening and smaller round-headed arched window openings on the first and second floors. The second floor has two square openings for beams, and smaller round-headed window openings are present on the east and west walls. The two-stage chimney has a moulded brick collar over a stone first stage, with remnants of a moulded collar on the upper stage.

The shaft is named after Mr. Edward Hawke, Jun., the purser in 1865. In 1864, there were no returns, but by 1865, it was noted that the company had recently resumed operations after a suspension of one or two years, and they were sinking the engine shaft to intersect the lode at a depth of about 70 fathoms. The chimney of this engine house, after its heightening around 1900, is the tallest surviving chimney in Cornwall.