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The chimney has survived almost intact but the boiler house was a ruin until its current restoration as a private dwelling. This is on the eastern (Llwyncelyn) side of the mine north of the village of Llanfyrnach.
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The chimney is one of the few surviving features of the silver-lead mine and is attached to the old boiler house, currently under restoration. In the late 1850s a portable steam engine here powered the pumps needed to remove water from the mine workings at Number 2 shaft to the southeast.
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Dist:0.1km<br/>Terrace of 12 back-to-back cottages built in the C19 for silver-lead miners drawn, or brought, here to work the veins close by. Some came, at different periods, from Derbyshire and Cornwall to lend their expertise.
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Dist:0.1km<br/>The river here as it flows through the site of the former silver-lead mine. The force of the water was sufficient to power the machinery for part of the year but extra needed to be piped in from storage ponds on higher ground to increase the volume during dry periods.
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Dist:0.1km<br/>A Cornish beam pumping-engine was installed here in 1860, adjacent to Number 1 shaft. It was a more effective method of removing water from the workings and allowed the veins to be worked to a deeper level.
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Dist:0.1km<br/>The shaft here became the focus of operations in the 1860s when a steam-driven pumping engine was installed by Thomas Turner from Wolverhamption. However water continued to be a problem and more pumps were soon required.
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Dist:0.2km<br/>This masonry-lined pit, adjacent to Number 1 shaft, housed a waterwheel, which, when installed in 1844, succeeded for a while in draining the mine workings to a deeper level than had previously been possible.
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Dist:0.2km<br/>Ruins and remains of this silver-lead mine are scattered about on privately-owned land along the river valley, gradually disappearing under vegetation. This is the area of Chain Shaft that was worked in the final period of the mining operations in the 1860s/70s.
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Dist:0.2km<br/>A high water table was one of the main problems that bedevilled this silver-lead mine. It halted C18 ore extraction and eventually rendered the C19 technological advances in pumping unprofitable too. This view looking north from Number 1 shaft.
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Dist:0.2km<br/>The damp and lead-heavy terrain of the old mine site seems to favour the growth of moss which in this image has crept up the ash suckers to create a bottle-brush effect.
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Dist:0.2km<br/>This appears to be the masonry-lined pit for drawing machine c. 1860, adjoining Chain Shaft, mentioned in the excellent historical material by Peter Claughton of Exeter University http://www.people.ex.ac.uk/pfclaugh/mhinf/pembs1.htm
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Dist:0.2km<br/>From the top of the highest spoilheap: many of the old mine workings along the valley side are lost or hidden among trees and vegetation.
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Dist:0.2km<br/>By peering down into a surface level opening, masonry-lined tunnels about 2-3 feet in height can be seen leading either way in a roughly north-south direction.
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Dist:0.2km<br/>The soil here is almost black and supports only a few lead-tolerant plants; rabbits seem to have no problem with it and the mounds are full of their burrows.
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Dist:0.5km<br/>A haulage company based at Llanfyrnach is the main local employer in this thinly populated rural area. One of the chief loads is stone from local quarries.
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