The Wheal Mary Ann Mine Silver Plate at Liskeard Museum

Its amazing how history never stops being told. I have just come away from the Liskeard Museum with a USB stick of images of a fascinating document that has been recently donated to their collection. Within these images there may be lying undiscovered gems of information about William West’s engines. With luck, I will have time to find some of these before Saturday’s launch.

Meanwhile here is one of the reasons I went to the Museum in the first place, a transcript of the inscription on Silver plate the Museum has hung on the wall.

Peter Clymo Esq
By the adventures in Wheal Mary Ann Mine
As a testimony of their respect and esteem
And in appreciation of his
Able management of the adventure
From its commencement to
The present time
Menheniot Sep13th 1859

The Clymos were closely associated with William West and he was their engineer at Wheal Mary Ann.
See page 78 of The Last Great Engineer.

Phoenix United-A picture explored

Just had a great day up at Kelly Mine on the edge of Dartmoor. What an amazing little site to visit, such an inspiration on how to preserve industrial history. Thanks guys for a great visit. If you are in the area for one of their open days then it is well worth a visit.

Watching a set of stamps working away was a highlight, the hypnotic beat of their heads crushing the shiney ore echoed through the shed.  It gave a hint to the racket the huge banks of stamps must have made on a large Cornish tin mine, an there we have a link into the next post about William West-The photograph of Phoenix United.

Phoenix United Mine

Phoenix United Mine shortly after closue

This photograph is reproduced in higher resolution on page 124 and 125 of The Last Great Cornish Engineer. The view it portrays looks more in place amongst the huge mines of the Camborne/Redruth area, not the open moorland of Bodmin Moor.

Phoenix United Mine near Minions, on Bodmin Moor, always had close associations with William West. He started off as its engineer and then became its owner. So this is a view packed with West’s work.

From left to right the engines shown are:
  West Phoenix Stamps-26 inch
  Crushing Engine-15 inch
  Phoenix stamps-32 inch driving 96 heads of stamps
  Seccombes Whim engine-28 inch
  Seccombes Pumping engine-60 inch
  Sump shaft Whim-28 inch
  West’s Whim-20 inch, horizontal engine

New blog for Navsbooks

Welcome to Navsbooks new blog. After many hiccups with uploading photos on blogspot It is time to try something new. So time to explore wordpress from the kindle.

Navsbooks is the name used for my Kindle Direct Publishing, but this blog will wander around all my publications, including the dead tree ones. The blog’s aim will be to add value to the original books, go down rabbit holes, fill gaps, and explore the subjects beyond my original words.

The first wander is into the world of -The last great Cornish Engineer-William West of Tredenham.
JM