South Crofty, at Pool, was the last working tin mine in Cornwall. When it closed in 1998 it was the end of an almost unbroken history of 300 years. In the 19th century Pool was a thriving village surrounded by mines which between them produced 670,000 tonnes of copper and almost 1,000,000 tonnes of tin.
The East Pool Mine was one such mine and its steam winding engine of 1887 remains as part of Cornish Mines and Engines at Pool. It was designed by a local engineer, E W Michell, and was the last rotative beam engine to be made in Cornwall.
The engine was 'double acting' which meant the steam acted alternately on the top and bottom of the piston. It was then exhausted to a condenser instead of being discharged into the air. The boiler room was demolished some time after the closure of the mine in 1921 but was re-built by the National Trust in 1975.
The engine is now driven by an electric motor, but it was operated by steam between 1887 and 1921. A large rock fall destroyed the shaft and the mine was abandoned. The company then sank the new Taylor's Shaft, which can be viewed on the other side of the road.
The Taylor's Shaft engine was constructed in 1892 and was originally built for pumping water at the Carn Brea Mines, but was re-erected at Taylor's Shaft in 1924, and therefore was the last Cornish engine to be erected in the world. The engine is one of the largest of its kind, with the cylinder measuring 900 centimetres and the total weight of metal amounting to 125 tonnes.
The East Pool Mine closed in 1945, but the engine continued working for another nine years. This was because when the engine originally stopped pumping in 1945, there was an increase of water at nearby South Crofty. The mine owners at South Crofty had to keep the engine going to avoid their mine being flooded.