Final pump stage in shaft. The pump rod is the thicker of the two timbers down the center of the picture.

The pipe on the right is the rising main from the pump 300 feet lower in the shaft. The raised water would be discharged into the cistern (bottom) to  be lifted by suction and and then forced through the clack valve and up the rising main to the surface.

The pipe work on the left is known as the 'H' piece and the second 'clack' is located in the wide part.

The ladder on the right is one of many that descend through all the platforms to the shaft bottom. This would be used by the shaftsmen to service the pumps, a job detested by most miners due to the perpetual rain in the shaft.

              BACK                 Home page