It also hosts a very remarkable engine house of the mid-19th century that once stood over Trelawney's shaft on Wheal Vor, and since the Wheal Vor area itself has no visible remains, this is the only large surviving engine house of this group of mines which accounted for over a quarter of Cornish tin production in the mid-19th century.

Around 290 to 280 million years ago rising plutons of granite intruded the native sedimentary rocks locally known as killas.

Where the lodes outcrop on the surface, mineral-rich rocks were eroded and washed away in the streams, providing the early adventurers their first chance to recover the minerals exposed and locally accumulated in "placers".

The former pools upstream of the works, as well as an unnatural kink in the course of the stream and the remain of an old sluice gate, indicates past efforts to harness the power of water.

By 1848 at the time of the suspension of work at Wheal Vor one of its engines ( Bounder whim ) was moved to Old Metal shaft [3] which reached depths of between 50 or 70 fathoms below adit, which, however, remains modest compared with the 236 fathoms reached at Wheal Vor, but nonetheless returned some rich parcels of tins.

This sett together with nearby Flow (also acquired in 1953) were the only source of income of the company, which was still putting all its resources into dewatering Wheal Vor.

[11] In 1877 the company was wound up and the 85-inch engine sold to Newcastle and Gateshead waterworks' Wylam pumping station in Northumberland, where it survived until the 1940s.

A cast-iron pipe of fair diameter is visible at the intersection of two lanes a little to the north of the engine house, and points to the direction of where the dressing floor may have been next to a large heap of spoils several storeys high that stood there until sold off to the Navy for the foundations of one of the runways at nearby Culdrose Navy base.

The sett is included in an area designated as a World Heritage Site, in recognition of the contribution of Cornish mining to the Industrial Revolution.