Regarding Penn Recca Slate Mine - The following is a report that appeared in a local newspaper of 1854:
The adit at Lower Combe runs almost due north into the hillside. It opens at the end of a small cutting, near some ruined mine buildings now overgrown with trees. A little further down the hillside are tips of waste slate, not very extensive and containing probably little more than the rubble extracted from the main adit. The entrance itself is about six foot square, and the adit maintains this size with little variation throughout its length. For the first 1550 ft. the adit is straight, and daylight may still be seen more than a quarter of a mile inside. The floor slopes very gradually downward towards the entrance, and a low concrete barrier has been built there to retain the water that drains down the adit. A cast iron pipe collects this water, which is then used for drinking purposes in the parish of Staverton. A gate is fitted at the mouth of the adit to prevent contamination of the water by visitors or animals.
Some 40 ft. inside the entrance there is a branch passage of similar section on the right (east), coming to a dead end after 140 ft. When the Combe adit was being constructed, shafts were evidently sunk from the hillside above. At some subsequent time they were bridged across at the lower ends and filled with rubble. No trace remains on the surface, but in the roof of the adit can be seen the timbers and jammed boulders, fortunately now cemented together by stalagmite deposition. The shafts occur at 480 ft. 990 ft. and 1108 ft. from the entrance. The exact date of the filling is not known but it was certainly much later than the time of the original construction. A conversation with a man of about 50 years of age suggests that it took place about 1910. He recalled seeing a little girl playing dangerously close to the shafts when he was of Sunday school age, and added that they were filled in shortly afterwards when some donkeys had been injured in there.
A new steam engine has been erected at Recca slate quarry, and a number of men are engaged at the works. Devonport Journal: Thursday 30th November 1854.
Regards Tin Miner