Wheal Betsy - Mary Tavy, Devon, UK - Dartmoor Granite on Waymarking.com

"The 19th century engine house known as Wheal Betsy pumping house, 370m south west of Cholwell, lies within a well known mining area, but is the only fully standing engine house of its type on Dartmoor. It has been monumentalised and preserved in a dramatic location and is perhaps one of the most easily recognised landmarks on the moor. Representing the important technological improvements of the 19th century industrial age of invention and innovation, whilst set in an incredibly rich historic landscape it encapsulates the changes and developments in industrial activity and the social and economic conditions which could engender both success and failure.

The engine house survives as a roofless narrow rectangular three storied building with its high pitched gable end wall, side walls, front bob wall and an immediately adjacent circular chimney all standing to full height. Built from locally quarried and roughly dressed granite in 1868 to house a Cornish beam pumping engine, the engine house remained in use until the mine closed in 1877. All the door and window lintels were of timber and originally a timber gantry would have extended from the front wall to enable maintenance of the bob or beam. From this point upwards the supporting wall of the building would have been made from timber. The interior of the building was plastered and much of this survives. There is a wide door to the rear where the machinery would have been installed and removed and a smaller pedestrian door. The whole engine house was lit through a series of windows in the north and south walls and there are sockets for stress relieving beams at second floor level. The floor joists were supported by sockets on the east and west walls which were removed during the 1960’s when the whole building underwent repairs and was monumentalised as a ruin. At this time a tie bar was installed to ensure the leaning chimney stack did not collapse. The mine itself produced lead, copper, silver, arsenic and zinc and was known variously as Prince Arthur Consols, North Wheal Friendship and Wheal Betsy. It closed down when it became uneconomic to pump the mine at a time when lead prices were at their lowest."
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Ordnance Survey map reference (10 figure) if within DNP – If outside the Park, add N/A: SX 51013 81393

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