Anyway I decided to do a bit of background research into the building to find out what it was,why it was there and more importantly, if it would work well as a foreground subject for my star photography.
History
The pumping station called Wheal Betsy, was believed to have opened in 1740 and worked land in a surrounding 3/4 mile radius, yielding lead, zinc and large amounts of silver. Smelting occurred on site to separate the silver from the other impurities, which after a great deal of smelting, silver was left in the base of the 'hearth'. Smelting is a very complicated and 'energy hungry' process which lead to the burning of peat from the surrounding area. Although it was worthwhile as the silver from the area was plentiful and of a good quality.
The mine closed in the late 1700s and then was re opened in the 1800s and begun to produce more silver and other minerals, although the second time around, profits were fluctuating and dropped to an all time low in 1877 which meant the mine was closed for good.
Unfortunately much of the workings were demolished when the site was given over to the army in 1954, but thankfully due to some protesting by A.K Hamilton Jenkin and some other campaigners, the site at Wheal Betsy was saved and taken care of to this day by The National Trust.
Background information: www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk
The photographs
These are a few from the Legendary Dartmoor Website, as they give more general views of the surrounding area as opposed to my close up recce shots lower down:
The image below shows the quite significant lean on the chinmey stack, as is also shown in my recce images:
This image shows the surrounding landscape which consists of many trenchs and gravel stores where old pieces of machinery used to stand in the past:
The image below shows an OS map from 1888/1893 which clearly shows all the different buildings and the main road (A386) which runs to the West of the mine:
My Recce Photographs
Now it's time to take a look at my recce photographs from the site and see whether the old pumping station fits my requirements for a foreground subject:
The photograph below shows Wheal Betsy looking North West, it clearly shows that the building is a skeleton and has no construction inside the outer walls; from this angle, the leaning chimney cannot clearly be seen:
The image below shows the extent of the leaning chimney and how precarious it looks, when I was there, I didn't even notice the chimney, then I looked up and saw the lean on it and thought it was going to fall! but luckily it didn't, as it has been this way for years, anyway in this photo I wanted to see how the building would look as a silhouette on the background and it does look very effective, possibly some food for thought when I consider a main shoot at this location:
Another silhouette image but this time the moon is featured in the background; looking completely the wrong way for a night shot, but as the stars were being momentarily covered by clouds, I decided to see how the moon would look in an image featuring the view looking South West of the tower:
This image shows the chimney from a close up angle, the lean can clearly be seen above. But I did take this image to get more of an idea of how the texture of the surface would work with the lighting conditions, bearing in mind, these shots were taken at dusk, they do not represent how the light would reflect from the building, at the sort of time I would shoot photographs:
Was the Recce Useful?
The recce was extremely useful, as I have never physically visited the mine before today, I had only seen it from the main road so it was certainly useful to see how far it was from the road and also check for some decent angles and compositions in which to place the tower.
Whilst visiting the site, it did have a certain degree of 'spookiness' to it, which was quite interesting as it was only a building, however the shape of it and position does give an idea of some sort of haunted building or something, which gave the building a little bit more of a mysterious feel to it.
As for composition material, I felt confident that the tower would act as an excellent foreground subject, which would work well with the star trails to be composed in the background. I couldn't see a perfect location to place my camera, so I decided it would be best to consider this on the night as it will become quickly apparent as to where my camera should be positioned; on the Southern face looking North.
I worked out a decent place to park which wouldn't involve leaving my car at the side of the busy A386, as there is a little farm on the neighbouring slope to the tower with a road leading to it, near the base of the hill there was a good space to park my car safely.
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