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Cornish Man-Engine at Camborne, Cornwall 3rd August 2016

The Cornish Man-Engine in Camborne, Cornwall, on 3rd August 2016. An estimated 16,000 people turned up in the mining town to see the giant puppet. More images below.

This week I was lucky enough to make a visit to Redruth and Camborne, in Cornwall, to see the Cornish Man Engine. The colossal metal Cornish Miner – part man, part machine – weighs nearly 40 tonnes with his trailer. Upright, he stands at over 10 metres high, the size of two and a half double decker buses.

The giant metal puppet will traverse the length of the Cornish Mining Landscape over the course of two weeks, visiting all 10 Mining World Heritage Site areas. In July 2006 the Cornish mining landscape was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so this marks the tenth anniversary.

The Man Engine is the largest mechanical puppet ever made in Britain and was entirely engineered in Cornwall. He started his 130-mile journey in Tavistock on 25 July 2016 and will appear at some 25+ events en route, until the final one at Geevor Tin Mine on 6 August.

Along the way the Cornish Man Engine was accompanied and animated by a dozen or more ‘miners’ and ‘bal-maidens’. He was joined in Camborne by his prehistoric friend Levantosaur (see photos below).

These photos of the Cornish ‘man machine’ were taken in Camborne and Redruth.

Video footage can be seen here: