Engine Punk

The pump engine house at Magpie Mine Just before attending the Imp Club National, I camped for a few days at Monyash in the High Peak. This was a good choice because within a few miles was the site of an abandoned mine. I'd already researched the area and discovered that there was a Cornish engine house at Magpie Mine, reputedly the best preserved lead mine in the country. I'd never been to the Peak District before and was very pleasantly surprised by what I found. It's quite beautiful and not at all crowded. It made a pleasant change to find a part of the British Isles that I did not know at all. When I approached Magpie Mine, though, I felt back at home. You can see the engine house for some way off and it had all the hallmarks of a Cornish engine house. It was built by Captain John Taylor who operated mines all over the UK, as well as in Mexico, and he brought a team of about twenty Cornish men to Sheldon to There were other mine engines of this type in the...

Calling all Steam Punks! Here is the Murdoch Flyer, a replica of a road locomotive that might pre-date Cap'n Richard Trevithick's engine of 1801. It's been built by a group called the Murdoch boys based in Redruth. Construction was financed by voluntary contributions and grants including sales of a song called "The Ballad of William Murdoch" by Ed Hamilton. As interest in steam punk increases on the back of stories such as Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy, models of steam engines inspired by such speculative fiction are being made all over the world. But here we have the grandaddy of them. Or at the very least, one of the granddaddies. Cornwall can justifiably claim to be the birth place of steam traction. In 2001, we celebrated 200 years of Cornish motoring but the Murdoch Boys who have built this replica of the Flyer point to a tantalising account that Murdoch rode around the Cornish tin mines in a full sized development of the models he...

Definitely a Vintage Thing At risk of sounding blasé , I've had fan e-mails before now. However, last week I had my first ever real piece of fan mail and I'm very excited about it. Here it is and what a good choice of subject for a postcard. I know it's not cool but I still get excited that some complete stranger has enjoyed my work. And thanks to it being a postcard, my postman must be pretty impressed as well. I think this justifies the funny feeling that I've had for some time. I seem to be creating ripples on the internet and in people's minds. Sometimes the ripples reach the far shore and come back to me. Meanwhile, I've been trying to drum up some local media interest but so far it hasn't happened. (That's why I haven't been blogging for a while, that and Blogger not accepting blogs for a bit.) So far the ripples haven't come back to me but I have that funny feeling that if I splash around a bit more they will. In the meantime,...

Trevithick's road locomotive Hidden away in the steep sided combes of south–western Britain, concealed behind unremarkable facades in market towns and sleepy hamlets, tucked deep down into wooded valleys or crouched against the elements on wind blasted heaths and moors, something is stirring. This is Britain ’s crumple zone against the Atlantic and, against very long odds, Cornwall is still home to an ongoing automotive tradition that has been quietly surviving for over two hundred years. If someone announced that they had written a book on Cornwall ’s motor industry, a very slim volume would probably be the result – not so much a book as a pamphlet. Being able to produce over 150 well illustrated A4 pages initially seems nothing short of remarkable. Having read Cornwall ’s Motor Industry by Peter Tutthill, it’s clear that he has unearthed a wealth of material and some fascinating insights into a surprisingly varied cottage industry. I am also struck by the influence of...

David Hockney made a fortune out of doing photos like this Hidden away in the steep sided combes of south–western Britain, concealed behind unremarkable facades in market towns and sleepy hamlets, tucked deep down into wooded valleys or crouched against the elements on wind blasted heaths and moors, something is stirring. This is Britain ’s crumple zone against the Atlantic and, against very long odds, Cornwall is still home to an ongoing automotive tradition that has been quietly surviving for over two hundred years. If someone announced that they had written a book on Cornwall ’s motor industry, a very slim volume would probably be the result – not so much a book as a pamphlet. Being able to produce over 150 well illustrated A4 pages initially seems nothing short of remarkable. Having read Cornwall ’s Motor Industry by Peter Tutthill, it’s clear that he has unearthed a wealth of material and some fascinating insights into a surprisingly varied cottage industry. I am also...