Crown's Engine Houses, Botallack Mine, St Just, Penwith Peninsula, Cornwall, UK. Sepia-toned black and white version
Low on the cliffs outside the village of Botallack stand the abandoned remains of Crown Mine. Two engine houses remain, housing the entrance to shafts running as much as 400 metres out under the sea. The deepest shaft is 500 metres beneath sea level. The Crown Mines at Botallack began around 1721. In 1858 the Boscawen Diagonal Shaft was dug to access lodes over 1/3 mile under the sea bed. The mine suffered losses in a depression in the 1870s, and when a section of a tunnel collapsed in 1895 the mine closed. When tin prices rose in 1905 the mine briefly reopened, only to close again a decade later. The main buildings to survive are the Lower Engine House, built in the 1830s, and the Upper Engine House, begun in 1858. The Lower Engine House was built to pump water from the mines and stands 60 feet above sea level. The Upper engine House served as a winding house for the Boscawen Diagonal Shaft. It stands 110 feet above sea level, and about 50 feet above the Lower Engine House. The engine house powered a skip taking ore up the 30-degree incline of the Boscawen shaft. The shaft closed in 1874 and by 1880 the Upper Engine House had been stripped clean of its internal workings.
Size: 5120px × 3413px
Location: Crown Mines, Botallack, Cornwall, England, UK
Photo credit: © will Perrett / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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