It’s been a day of celebration here on the moor today. It’s the 100th anniversary of the installation of the last Cornish Beam Engine ever to be set up in a Cornish mine. The Price of Wales himself came to open the new engine house. It was a big, big day for the local economy.
Sadly (or otherwise), the mine failed, unable to extract enough minerals to be commercially viable. In fact, it only managed to bring to the surface 95 tons of black tin in the six years between 1907 and 1913. I’m not entirely sure how they extracted the ore between 1907 and 1909 when the beam engine was installed. Had the mine been more successful, it’s without doubt that the countryside around here would have looked a great deal different today. For me, that would have been a sadness because we are lucky to have some of the most glorious, wild countryside that England can muster.
The Prince of Wales shaft was 1200 feet deep (nearly ¼ mile) so there is a bloody big hole underneath the building.
Strangely, in the way that only something organised by a local committee (in other words a lot of people who mean well and work hard but who have few, if any, commercial skills) can be, the people organising this event decided to do the lighting up of the actual Prince of Wales shaft without bothering to tell any of the residents that it was happening back in the spring. We sat in our sitting room, almost within spitting distance of the event, not knowing that it was happening. I can tell you there were a few people who I’d gladly have spat at had I been in range when I found this out. The only people there were a few “local dignitaries” and the organisers. Shame on them.
One of my greatest concerns since moving here is the total lack of co-ordinated communication there is for people about their local area. It’s really hard to find out news of things that are coming up or that affect us all. If we’re lucky, we get to hear about things retrospectively in the Cornish Times, whose only “what’s happening in your area” guide consists of info about whist drives, coffee mornings and bingo sessions. I despair, but at the same time I have learned to pick which battles I fight because I could volunteer to do something about this but it’s surely going to be loads of hard work and largely thankless, not to mention without any kind of financial reward.
Furthermore, when the organisers had the celebration of the event itself, it was decided to do it on the actual anniversary (a midweek day rather than the nearest weekend) so the lucky people around here with jobs were unable to see the events. The final blow was that on the day we celebrated the installation of the beam engine at The Prince of Wales engine house, they chose to light up Houseman’s shaft (the one pictured) instead.
I know I may sound like a moaning Minnie (OK, it’s true, I AM a moaning Minnie) but these things make no sense to me at all.
However, I would say that the sight of the Puffing Devil (Trevithick’s steam car) rushing towards me while I shot its photo was pretty amazing. Exhilarating even. I’m also thrilled to see ANY engine house lit up at night if I’m honest, whether it’s technically the right one or not. It’s something that few people get to see. Not only that but given my unemployed status, I did get the lucky pleasure of being there during the day and the evening too. So, despite my moaning, I had a lovely day and enjoyed every moment.
Note for anyone wondering where I’ve disappeared to recently – I’ve been taking a breather from anything I don’t HAVE to do because things have been getting me down a bit of late again and I’m determined to be kinder to myself and not fall back into the black hole.
