Dear List,
I've just been carrying out archaeological survey work at Wheal Crebor, near Tavistock, and have found what appears to be the underground water wheel pit which drove the winch for the mine's inclined railway shaft, installed 1808-1812 and presumably engineered by John Taylor. The rock-cut chamber is immediately alongside the incline shaft and took its water direct from the Tavistock Canal alongside, apparently in the high-breast-shot position. It contains vertical chases for structural timbers and lies alongside the inclined shaft, separated from it by a small squared-off lobby which presumably carried the drive shaft to the winch. The only place the winch could be located was directly under the inclined railway, which then crossed the canal obliquely on a wooden bridge to the surface. This means that the winch chain must have run backwards up to the top of the incline underneath the track, before going round a pulley to return in the opposite direction down the shaft.
Does anyone know of a similar arrangement, preferably on any of the other inclined shafts on mines associated with John Taylor? Have water powered underground inclines been identified elsewhere?
Robert Waterhouse
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