Wheal Prosper Engine House

Wheal Prosper Engine House is a ruin of a beam engine house built around 1860. It is constructed from killas rubble with dressed granite quoins and jambstones, wooden lintels, and a brick upper stage to the chimney. The building has a rectangular plan with a round chimney at the rear right corner. The thicker front bob wall features a plug doorway, while the rear wall has a boiler doorway. The machinery, floors, studwork to the second floor, gable over the bob wall, and roof structure have all been removed. Originally, the structure had three floors above a basement pit, with a basement plinth. There is a central ground floor opening to the front bob wall, central openings to each floor of the rear gable end, window openings to each floor of the left-hand wing wall, and a ground floor opening to the right-hand wing wall, along with small square openings in the wing walls for removed cross beams. The chimney is tapered in two stages and features two moulded brick collars. Wheal Prosper operated from around 1860 to 1866, housing a 30-inch pumping engine that was noted to have "almost nothing to do, only making about two strokes in three minutes." In 1860, a 20-inch stamping and winding engine was erected, which is possibly what this engine house contained, and it worked 16 head of stamps. Dressing floors were also present, supplied with water pumped from the mine and distributed via wooden launders. The engine house was restored in 1970 by the National Trust and is located in unspoilt coastal moorland near the cliff edge.