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"Widowmaker" dry rock drill and drill bits wanted to add to our display of artifacts. Can anyone help please?



A display of artifacts from other mines in the area is being created alongside the track between the drying shed and the tramming level adit. Currently the display comprises:-

  • Hardinge Ball Mill from Great Rock Shiny Ore Mine, Hennock - the rotating part only and not the bearings. This and the next two items were previously at Okehampton Museum. Inside the mill body were some of the iron balls and other assorted ferous items performing the same service. Also inside the mill were two jaws of the Hammer Mill at Great Rock.

  • Climax Rock Drill Former/Sharpener from Great Rock Mine, formerly at Canonteign Falls. Climax were later taken over by Holmans. This item is being restored as far as is practical. More information on this equipment is sought.

  • Tram chassis, reputedly from Holne Chase Mine (near Ashburton) but looking very like the 20th century side tippers used at Great Rock.

  • Slab sided steel tram body from Great Rock.

  • Trusham Quarry tram chassis.

  • Two stretcher bearer tram from English China Clays Broadway Mine (Kingsteignton).


PROJECTS

  • The early waterwheel pit on the side of the mill has been refurbished. Some of the stonework has been rebuilt with lime mortar and new timbering is in place. The pit is 22 feet long, 9 or 10 feet deep and 28 inches wide, and is reputed to have housed a 16 foot diameter wheel.

  • A set of lightweight Cornish stamps with four heads are being constructed in the style of typical stamps. Cornish stamps are known to have been use at Kelly Mine and two sizes of stamp head have been found on the site. These stamps are modelled on the smaller head size. They will be located in the mill adjacent to the above wheelpit and powered by a wheel being erected in the pit.

  • The shrouds (or outer rings) of a 16 foot wheel, probably manufactured about 1850 by William Willmitt of Wellington, Somerset, have been purchased rom Wigdon Mill, near Okehampton. The wheel was originally supplied to Chubworthy Farm, Raddington, Somerset. New hubs (or naves) have been fabricated together with new metal spokes and the plates to fix them to the shrouds. New steel buckets have been fitted to the shrouds and the complete wheel is being assembled horizontally on a jig prior to being dismantled and reassembled in the wheelpit adjacent to the mill.

  • The top of the old shaft is being stabilised. A reinforced concrete ring beam has been inserted on the bedrock surmounted by reinforced concrete walling to restore the original dimensions where coning has occurred. It is hoped that a headgear and pumping machinery will be installed. The 18 inch gauge rail at the top level has been extended past the shaft and a branch will ultimately extend for a turntable to the shaft.