Former Miners Dry, Bickfords And Palmers Shafts, South Crofty Mine

SW 64 SE CARN BREA STATION ROAD (West side) 501/5/10016 Former Miners' Dry, Bickford's And Palmer's Shafts, South Crofty Mine

GV II

Miner's dry, later cooperage, now disused. 1863. Killas rubble with granite dressings and slate roof. Two storey; 3-window range, window frames removed or blocked, with iron steps up to left-hand end, and a small porch added to centre; right-hand end with 6/6 sashes. INTERIOR: reported to have softwood trusses. HISTORY: In 1863, South Wheal Crofty was reorganised from the old workings of East Wheal Crofty by the manager, Capt. William Rutter, placing the surviving ancillary buildings in a semi-square to the N of the two shafts, Bickford's and Palmer's. New survey rooms were later added, and the miner's dry used as a cooperage, stores, and training school. A rare surviving example of a type of building which characterised the mine groups of the Cornish orefields, the date of its construction representing the apogee of Cornish mining before the advent of compressors and rock drills and the severe contraction of the industry from the 1870s. (Buckley, J A; Robinson's Engine House and Environs: an Assessment, (Report for Cornwall Country Council), 1990)

Listing NGR: SW6692641307