Inside the mill and other sketches

I arrived at Geevor in blistering sunshine to find it almost deserted, as it happened to be Golowan Festival in nearby Penzance. Grabbing my hard hat I headed straight for the mill, as areas here can be retrictive if other people are touring the building.
Down the first flight of stairs is an open area once used for the grinding and separating processes. I pulled out a sketchbook and graphite stick and got busy.

Above my head was an immense concrete structure which was an earlier settlement tank. Its difficult perspective offered a challenge of ellipses and angles. (You try holding a sketchbook up and craning your neck!)

My efforts were interrupted by the arrival of one of the miners who now work as tour guides on the site- in fact, there are only two people here who have not worked underground at Geevor. We began talking about why I was drawing and I explained that although at present I knew very little about mining I wanted to collate images to work them up into a series of pictures at a future date. He began to explain what the various machines did and spoke a little about his time underground; he was a stoper, the man who drills the holes and blasts into the lode to extract the ore.

After he left to talk to some visitors I walked down to the next level to where the shaking tables begin. These were used to separate the tin ore grains from the other particles and are fitted with robust springs on their edges.

I used a carbon pencil for this as I wanted to try to capture the grainy surface now largely devoid of grease. It is unfinished as I realised how late it was, and went to find a belated lunch.

My last two sketches were both related to the tin stamps, which crush the ore to a manageable size. The lower one was drawn from the cafe window looking down at the watermill and adjacent stamp. Having looked at this on the way up the hill, I  realised that the pipe-shaped piece in the previous drawing was the axle core for a stamp, and the lugs or teeth which raised the hammers would have been fitted into the holes.

Due to other demands I may not be visiting Geevor for a couple of weeks, but I have some reference photos which I want to work up some colour studies from so I will share these soon.