Loss of Livelihood

Wondrous is this masonry,
broken by the Fates;
the fortifications have given way,
the buildings raised by giants
are crumbling.

***

The owners and builders
are perished and gone,
held fast in the earth’s embrace,
the ruthless clutch of the grave,
while a hundred generations of
mankind have passed away.

Unknown (8th Century)
The Ruin (extract)

A composite of an infrared photo of an abandoned engine house, with a photo of the same engine house in use taken over 100 years earlier.

Great Wheal Busy is situated in what was once called "the richest square mile on Earth". This prosperous mine was active from the early 1720s and changed hands countless times until its closure in the 1920s. The Cornish mining industry experienced tumultuous success, but the reduced demand for tin and copper led to the closure of the mines. Now, the crumbling engine houses remain scattered across the landscape, a poignant reminder of an industry lost to time.

To illustrate this cultural loss, an infrared photograph of Great Wheal Busy has been combined with an archive image of the same engine house in use, taken in the early 1900s. The resulting image is an eerie amalgamation of what once was and what remains, of prosperity and ruin.

The original photo of an active engine house, taken in the early 1900s.

An infrared image of the now-abandoned engine house, with crumbling masonry and golden, overgrown bushes.

To be a miner meant to risk your life on a daily basis. Sadly, several tragedies struck workers at mines across Cornwall, but the coastal parish of St Just saw more than its fair share of disasters.

In 1863, nine men and boys fell to their deaths when the chain carrying their cart broke beneath the Crowns of Botallack. Just thirty years later, in 1893, another disaster struck the nearby Wheal Owles when water rushed into the mineshafts. The resulting gust of air extinguished the lights and twenty miners drowned in darkness. Most famously, in 1919, Levant Mine's "man engine", an early lift to transport workers up and down the mines, broke and fell down the shaft. Thirty-one men lost their lives.

When visiting engine houses and mining sites around Cornwall, we are not only reminded of the widespread loss of livelihood experienced when the mines closed but also of the tragic loss of life that was so commonplace in the industry. We look at the crumbling walls and remember that people not only made a living here, but they also died here.