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TeamManleyy

A view of 
South Caradon Mine 
 Facts behind the View
 
View of South Caradon Stamp Engine from the Footpath 
Stamp Engine
The Picture below is a close up taken from a photograph taken from Caradon & Looe  
The Canal, Railways and Mines  by Michael Messenger Click on the photograph for a wider view.  
The picture below shows the stamps engine with its flywheel driving a crusher on the left and the set of stamps on the right. 
The engine was of 28 inch diameter and powered a 24 head of stamps, a tramway fed ore in from the left of the picture and the tramway in the foreground transported the crushed ore to the dressing shed higher up the valley. The sweep rod and beam are lost in a motion blur indicating that the stamps are hard at work at the time of the photograph. 
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Complete photograph
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Stamp engine today
Dressing floor map
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South Caradon's ore did not lend itself well to stamping being very friable. Hand picking and sorting would have been used to reduce the amount of rock being fed to the stamps. 
 

Stamps when in operation gave out a tremendous din and the Seaton valley would have been echoing with their noise at the time of this photograph.

Click to see the site today 
 
A question 
This diagram shows the layout of the Stamp engine complex as suggested by CAU based on Ordnance survey maps. No  boiler house can be seen in this photograph immediately behind the Engine house where the CAU study suggests it should be, and no remains exist of it today.It was common for stamp engines to have its boiler houses in this position in order to release the room in front and to the sides for heads of stamps. 

A lean building to does exist on the side nearest the camera and a long low building lies across the track next to the chimney, perhaps one of these was the boiler house? 
If anyone has any information on this please send me an email 

 

 
 
 
 
Although the site appears to be freely accessible to the public it is on private land and no formal right of ways exist.   
Like all mine sites dangers exist, many hidden.  
This web site is aimed as a resource to those using the public right of way and cannnot encourage visitors to the mine workings itself.