: Comments on Prestongrange%20Industrial%20Heritage%20Museum

29 January 2009:
Re your beam engine, whilst it is the Cornish Hocking & Loam design, according to a Survey of engine houses in the SW of England - The Bulletin of Peak District Mines Historical Society Vol.13 No.2 Winter 1996, Nance & Nance,it was built in Plymouth by the foundry of J E Mare and originally installed at the Wheal Exmouth lead mine in the grounds of Canonteign Manor in the Teign Valley on the N E edge of Dartmoor. It is therefore very much a Devon engine and did not come from a Cornish tin mine as claimed on your site. Sorry to be picky but in these precious Nationalist times it pays to be precise with ones heritage !

Having, as someone who is British first and English a close second, indulged a mild swipe, which nevertheless I hope you may find quite interesting in the interests of historical accuracy, along with a lot of other facts in the article which gives a life to your engine, the main reason which led me to your site was the pursuit of Hocking & Loam engines.

I too live in the Teign Valley on the same lead lode as Wheal Exmouth with the remains of an engine house & stack in the garden. I know that the engine was a 30" H & L but little more. Have you any photos, technical data etc that might fill out my knowledge of a real example of one of these engines.

With thanks

Mark Steer
- Mark Steer (mark_steer@sky.com), Dartmoor, England