Last week I was having a mooch around the New East Shaft engine house at Dolcoath.

Does anyone know what looks like pipes inserted into the gable ends were for? Were these fitted during the building's later life as an electricity sub station (1913 onwards).

Also when the building functioned as a sub station was that just for Dolcoath Mine or was it for public distribution?

Presumably the current number of electricity poles in the vicinity of the house today are a legacy of when it was a substation?

Some sources suggest that the single storey extension building was erected when it was converted to a substation. Is that the case as it looks as though it could have been a boiler house.

The recess in the concrete floor of the engine house itself was this for the flywheel on the rotative beam engine or something to do with its use as a power station.

Any info would be appreciated. I have looked around on the web but can't find any detail info and would like to add some notes to the photos which I took.

Thanks

John

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The ducts were indeed installed for the overhead wires to enter into the building, until a few years ago there was a concrete floor at first floor level.

Originally the engine house would have housed a transformer and the building (Which may be the boiler house modified) would have housed the switchgear.

The history of electricity in Camborne/Redruth (And indeed West Cornwall) is heavily tied into the mines. The whole idea of electricity in the area started as a joint venture between Dolcoath and South Crofty Mines, with the inital generating station being where McDonalds is now, which then expanded to become the tram depot - the tram system was designed principally to transport ore from East Pool to Tuckingmill.

Public electricity supply came much later, with Cornwall being one of the first areas in the country to have a rural distribution network - I have a Network map from 1914 at work and its quite impressive, with all the major substations being located at mine and industrial sites from Geevor to Perranporth. As the network grew to supply houses, the distribution 😠 were the existing substations, resulting in areas of electricity network still focusing in on those sites over 100 years later.

Thanks for confirming the use of the piles in the walls Knocker. It certainly looked as though they had some electrical connection.

I did have a book on the Camborne and Redruth Tramway but unfortunately it was sold some years ago during a collection thinning exercise.

John

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