SW691398
This site lies on the opposite side of the valley to the West Basset Stamps and unfortunately the remaining derelict buildings have been the subject of many modifications since the closure of Basset Mines Ltd. In addition major earth moving has modified the topography and many surface features have been buried.
The site layout can be seen from the 1st and 2nd edition 25" OS maps and the changes which occurred in that 28 year period are considerable. Furthermore, the dressing floors themselves were again altered after 1906 by Basset Mines Ltd.
Once again the site is dominated by the former stamps engine house and its chimney stack. The double engine house was erected in 1868 to contain two single acting 30 inch beam engines mounted side by side and connected to a common flywheel. These two engines served for 50 years and eventually powered 96 heads of stamps. The engine houses have been modified since closure to act as ore hoppers for reworking the dumps. Little remains of the stamps themselves and new loadings have been constructed to carry Californian stamps.
Of the original dressing floors nothing tangible remains. The earliest floors were on the eastern boundary of the sett and had been removed by 1906 .There were new dressing floors erected below the stamps in 1868-9 which were modified by the time of the 1906 survey and again when vanners were installed in 1908. Modifications to the vanner house took place in the late 1930s when it was re-equipped to process the dumps; the changes included modification of the gable end walls,.Within the vanner house the concrete foundations for separators, classifiers and other plant may be seen..
The single Brunton calciner erected in 1897 and its stack remain derelict; once again the machinery has been scrapped and there is no indication of a labyrinth. Below the calciner are some massive pieces of masonry which it is thought formed part of the support structure for the Oxland and Hocking calciner erected on the site by Wheal Basset in 1869
Palmer, M. & Neaverson, P., The Basset Mines: Their History & Industrial Archaeology, Northern Mine Research Society, 1987.
See also: WHEAL BASSET; BASSET MINES; BASSET TRAMWAY; REDRUTH AND CHACEWATER RAILWAY; LYLE'S SHAFT.