Old Grit lead mine was part of the Grit sett, a mining area worked since Roman times by trenching on outcrops of the galena veins. Nineteenth century miners concentrated their efforts where several veins intersected.
These walls are all that remain of the Cornish engine house of 1783 which contained a 30-inch (75cm cylinder diameter) Boulton & Watt beam pumping engine. The pump rods extended to a depth of 60m in the shaft which was sunk where two veins met. Later, the Wood drainage level terminated at this shaft. NGR SO 327 982
150m to the south, the East Grit engine house pumped from a shaft sunk to a third vein. Built in the 1860's, probably by the ubiquitous mining engineer John Taylor, it also drove ore dressing plant and a winding drum. The remains are in better condition than Old grit and the large size suggests the engine might have had a 40-inch (1m) diameter cylinder. NGR SO 327 980
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