John H Luxton Photography

Transport + Industrial + History + Regional

  • Home
  • About
  • What's New
  • Browse
  • Photo Sales & Gifts
  • Info / Blog
  • Search
  • Contact
  • Links
  1. Industrial Archaeology
  2. Mines of Cornwall & Devon

Wheal Martyn

Wheal Martyn China Clay Museum is a museum of china clay mining, at Carthew 2 miles north of St Austell in Cornwall, England.
The museum is in a preserved Victorian china clay works.

The museum occupies 26 acres. A large collection of artefacts, machinery, photographs etc are preserved. The Museum was established in 1975. Part of the site is a Scheduled Monument, listed on April11, 1979. It is also Site of Special Scientific Interest, because of the geological features of the locality.

HISTORY
In 1790 Richard Martyn bought the Carthew Estate, and his son Elias started the Wheal Martyn china clay works there in the 1820s. By the 1840s there were five pits, and by 1869 Wheal Martyn was producing 2000 tons of clay a year. After Elias's death in 1872, his son Richard closed or leased works to other operators.

John Lovering took on the lease of Wheal Martyn in the 1880s and made many modifications to the works. The pit at Wheal Martyn closed in 1931, but the pan kiln, for drying clay, was used for clay from nearby pits until 1969.

The Gomm china clay works, which is also part of the site, was leased by the Martyn brothers from the Mount Edgcumbe Estate circa 1878 and was worked until the 1920s.
Wheal Martyn pit reopened in 1971 and is now worked by Imerys Minerals Ltd.

In order to pump clay slurry from the pit, which is some distance from a source of water, a system of iron rods transmits power, by a reciprocating motion, from a waterwheel of diameter 35 feet, made at Charlestown Foundry in the 1880s.

The waterwheel was in use until about 1940 and was restored in 1976.

The slurry pump, used to pump slurry around the site, is powered by a waterwheel of diameter 18 feet, built about 1902.
There are areas that were used for thickening the clay: settling pits, with a sloping floor, where the clay settled for several days until it had about 12% solids; settling tanks, where the clay reached about 30% solids in two to three months; the pan kiln, or "dry", where clay was heated from below by gases from coal-fired furnaces, and dried in one to three days, depending on the distance from the fire end.

Adjacent is the linhay, where about 1000 tons of clay could be stored; from here it was taken away to the customer.
Transport

Examples are exhibited of transport used in the clay industry: a Peckett railway locomotive of 1899, used at Lee Moor Pit in Devon; a 19th-century clay wagon (to be pulled by a team of three horses); a 1934 ERF lorry; and a First World War Peerless lorry.
Read More
  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    The main entrance to Wheal Martyn. The cafe, shop and discovery centre are located in the settling tanks of the Gomm Works, whilst the outside cafe seating area is within the area occupied by the pan kiln and linhay. The stack would have served the pan kiln fires.

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    The main entrance to Wheal Martyn. The cafe, shop and discovery centre are located in the settling tanks of the Gomm Works, whilst the outside cafe seating area is within the area occupied by the pan kiln and linhay. The stack would have served the pan kiln fires.

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    A sky tip incline hopper wagon used for dumping waste material. These created the familiar conical tips to be seen in china clay areas. Following the Aberfan disaster in Wales many of the tips were reprofiled, though some smaller conical ones remain often now grassed over.

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    Clay workers sculpture which stands at the entrance to the museum.

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    One of the displays in the China Clay discovery centre which shows how china clay is still an important commodity for industry today.

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    Model of the Wheal Martyn Museum site displayed in the Discovery Centre. The two separate works Gomm Left and Wheal Martyn right can be seen.

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    Leaving the Discovery Centre

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    An exaple of one of the high pressure monitors used for the hydraulic mining of the china clay.

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    Looking back to the Gomm Works buildings which now house the China Clay Discovery Centre.

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    Narrow gauge tram used for moving excavated clay.

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    hydraulic mining monitor

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    The 35ft slurry pump waterwheel and balance bob. The wheel was constructed in the 1880s by the Charlestown Foundry.

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    The 35ft slurry pump waterwheel and balance bob. The wheel was constructed in the 1880s by the Charlestown Foundry.

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    The 35ft slurry pump waterwheel and balance bob. The wheel was constructed in the 1880s by the Charlestown Foundry.

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    The balance bob for the 35ft water wheel.

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    The 35 ft Water Wheel

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    The 35ft slurry pump waterwheel and balance bob. The wheel was constructed in the 1880s by the Charlestown Foundry. The wheel was connected to the pit by half a mile of flat rods which passed through the buildings and through the flatrod tunnel to reach the pit.

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    The 35ft slurry pump waterwheel and balance bob. The wheel was constructed in the 1880s by the Charlestown Foundry. The wheel was connected to the pit by half a mile of flat rods which passed through the buildings and through the flatrod tunnel to reach the pit.

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    35ft wheel balance bob

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    The 35ft slurry pump waterwheel and balance bob. The wheel was constructed in the 1880s by the Charlestown Foundry. The wheel was connected to the pit by half a mile of flat rods which passed through the buildings and through the flatrod tunnel to reach the pit.

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    flatrod dolly wheels

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    Pumping interpretation board.

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    1934 ERF (ER Foden) lorry YD9325

  • WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    WHEAL MARTYN, Cornwall, UK - September 13, 2021

    1934 ERF (ER Foden) lorry YD9325

  • Photo Sharing
  • About SmugMug
  • Browse Photos
  • Prints & Gifts
  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Owner Log In
© 2022 SmugMug, Inc.