Bachmann Scenecraft Derelict Cornish Engine House

44-058Z Bachmann Scenecraft Derelict Cornish Engine House.

Size 66mm (l) x 56mm (w) x 150mm (h)

Exclusive to Kernow Model Rail Centre.

Based on Baronet's Engine House at Pennance Mine.

Pennance Mine lies in the Gwennap Mining District and is situated on the southern slopes of Carn Marth, due south of the converted quarry that is now 'Carn Marth Open Air Theatre'. Formerly known as Wheal Amelia, the area was worked by tinners as early as the 17th century. The mine continued to extract copper until about 1873 - it raised 147 tons of medium grade copper ore in its final year of production. Pennance will always however be classed as a small mine, the tin sold between 1870 and 1872 coming mainly from tinstuff rather than the more usual black tin. The slump in the price of copper in 1866 and the opening of new tin fields overseas sounded the death knell for Pennance Consols and it closed in 1874. Between 1880 and 1881 the sett was reworked under the name of East Buller.

The Manager at the mine was John Richards between 1862 and 1871 and S. Tredinnick between 1872 and 1875. The restored engine house, formerly housing a 50-inch pumping engine, on Baronet's Engine Shaft lies beside the hamlet of Pennance, itself an area of the village of Lanner about a mile southeast of Redruth. Its nearest neighbours were Wheal Buller, Wheal Beauchamp and Clijah & Wentworth Mine